Challenging Disappearance under the Alien Enemies Act Without Due Process

Encuentra este contenido en español aquí.

Petitioner Y.A.P.A., originally from Venezuela, came to the United States to seek asylum in 2022. He is proceeding using only his initials, for his own safety. While his asylum proceedings were pending, in February 2025, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him based on an allegation without evidence, which Y.A.P.A. vehemently denies, that he is a “known associate” of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Since his arrest, he has been detained at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.

Y.A.P.A. fears that at any moment he will be disappeared from the United States without due process under the Alien Enemies Act. This prospect is especially terrifying given that the U.S. government has sent other Venezuelans to El Salvador’s notorious maximum-security prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), under the Alien Enemies Act. Many of the people at CECOT have no known connection to Tren de Aragua other than similarly flimsy allegations made by ICE. The U.S. Supreme Court already decided that people subject to the Alien Enemies Act must receive due process and a meaningful opportunity to challenge the law’s application to them, but since then, the U.S. government has tried to disappear at least one group of people under the Act without due process.

The U.S. government’s current use of the Alien Enemies Act, targeting members of Tren de Aragua for rapid removal, is illegal. That law only applies when the United States has declared a war with another country, or another country has or is threatening to invade the United States. But the United States is not at war and is not being invaded by a foreign country.

The American Immigration Council and the ACLU filed a habeas petition to prevent Y.A.P.A.’s transfer to CECOT without giving him a meaningful chance to go before a judge to review the government’s allegations against him.