Never-Used Court Awakens as Justice Department Seeks Removal of ‘Alien Terrorist’

The Justice Department has until Wednesday to provide more information to a mysterious and never-before-used court created during the Clinton administration to review classified applications by the attorney general seeking to remove individuals designated “alien terrorists.”The Justice Department dropped a petition on the court last Wednesday — the first time the court has ever been petitioned — seeking to deport an unnamed individual. The court held a hearing the next day without any testimony. Later that day, it issued a response asking for more information relating to matters discussed in the hearing.The court had “questions about the nexus that the government alleges between the actions of the respondent and the specific sections and subsections it invokes with respect to those actions,” wrote Chief Judge Joan Ericksen, a judge from Minnesota’s Eighth Circuit who leads the five-member court.“The answers persuaded the Court that the Government could benefit from the opportunity for more thoughtful consideration,” she wrote, giving the Justice Department until Wednesday to submit “any further factual or legal analysis to satisfy its statutory obligations.”The court was created in 1996 as a result of that year’s Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which allows the attorney general to submit a sealed application identifying an individual as an “alien terrorist.” A single judge may grant the application if the person is correctly identified and other removal methods pose national security risks, according to the research and educational arm of the federal judiciary, the Federal Judicial Center.If the application is granted — based on a single’s judge’s finding that the individual has been correctly identified and that removal of a suspected “alien terrorist” by other available legal means would pose a risk to national security — then the court holds a public removal hearing The government must provide an unclassified summary of classified evidence and the accused has a right to counsel. If the Justice Department satisfies its burden of proof, the individual is deemed an alien terrorist eligible for removal. That decision may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.The antiterrorism and death penalty law that created the court, passed by Congress in 1996 on the heels of the Oklahoma City Bombing, was created to streamline criminal appeals and give finality to convictions, especially in death penalty cases. It was also central to allowing the designation of terrorist organizations and to make it illegal to fundraise for such organizations. According to the law, an individual may be designated as an “alien terrorist” by having “engaged in a terrorist activity,” endorsing or espousing terrorist activities, or by belonging to a political or social group that encourages terrorist activity.The use of the court is a new tool in the Trump administration’s belt to deport individuals accused of belonging to or being associated with terrorist gangs, for instance, Venezuela’s Tren De Aragua. Judges on the court are designated by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts. Among those appointed to serve is Judge James Boasberg, who served as chief judge of the court from 2020-2025. Judge Boasberg is no stranger to the Trump administration. A member of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, he is deemed by the administration as one of President Trump’s nemeses on the judiciary. Last year, the judge issued a restraining order against use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Tren de Aragua. That decision was overturned by the high court.Last year, Judge Boasberg indicated in a hearing objecting to the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court would be the better option for consideration of deportations based on national security claims, a piece of advice that the administration seemingly has taken.“In fact, Congress has an answer for us, doesn’t it? Because they created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court,” he said. “So if there’s a national security concern with having these hearings … you can always go to the ATRC, which would be a first, but that’s what it’s there for, right?”

Never-Used Court Awakens as Justice Department Seeks Removal of ‘Alien Terrorist’

Never-Used Court Awakens as Justice Department Seeks Removal of ‘Alien Terrorist’

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