Federal judges in New York and Texas on Wednesday issued orders to temporarily halt the deportation of Venezuelan plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act – a wartime authority the administration has invoked to deport alleged gang members without due process.

McALLEN — Federal judges in Texas and New York on Wednesday moved to block the U.S. government from deporting five Venezuelans under a rarely-invoked law that gives the president the power to imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war.

The hearings marked the first legal challenges to the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members since the Supreme Court lifted a nationwide block.