WASHINGTON, May 14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A US federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration could use an obscure wartime law to expel an alleged Venezuelan gang member, the latest twist in legal wrangling over deportations.

District Judge Stephanie Haines, a Trump appointee, found on Tuesday that the man's case "complies with" the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA), but said authorities must "provide greater notice to those subject to removal".

Trump invoked the little-known AEA, which was last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II, in March and flew two planeloads of alleged Tren de Aragua members to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

But the US Supreme Court and several lower courts have since temporarily halted deportations using the AEA, citing the lack of due process.

Attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not Tren de Aragua members, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.

In a legal win for Trump, Haines ruled that the US government could in fact use the law to deport suspected Venezuelan TdA members who were in the United States illegally "so long as the government provides sufficient notice and due process."

She said that authorities must give deportees at least 21 days' notice.

Haines described Tren de Aragua members as "bent on destabilizing the United States" and "flooding" the country with illegal drugs, seeking to cause "significant disruption to the public safety."

The ruling, which relates to a Venezuelan man identified only as 'A.S.R.', could lead to other deportations in Haines's Pennsylvania district, the Washington Post reported.

Tren de Aragua has been designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the Trump administration, which has paid El Salvador millions of dollars to lock up hundreds of deported migrants it claims are criminals and gang members.