United States President Donald Trump’s administration exceeded the scope of an 18th-century wartime law in using it to deport some Venezuelan migrants, a federal judge in Texas said on Thursday in barring the administration from using it to speed up deportations.

In a 36-page opinion, US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez ruled that the Trump administration could not rely on the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua because the gang’s presence in the United States was not an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” as contemplated by the law.

“The historical record renders clear that the President’s invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute’s terms,” wrote Rodriguez, who Trump appointed during his first term.

Neither the Justice Department nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.

Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to speed up the deportations of alleged Tren de Aragua members in mid-March, part of the Republican president’s push to crack down on immigration. The law is best known for being used to intern and deport people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War Two.

At least 137 Venezuelans were deported from the El Valle Detention Centre in Raymondville, Texas, under the law on March 15. Relatives of many of the men and their lawyers deny they were Tren de Aragua members, and say the deportees were not given the chance to contest the administration’s allegations.

The US Supreme Court on April 7 ruled that the Trump administration must give migrants the chance to contest any future Alien Enemies Act deportations in court.

Judges across the country have since issued temporary orders blocking such deportations in their districts.

Thursday’s preliminary injunction issued by Brownsville, Texas-based Rodriguez, whose district includes El Valle, is longer-lasting than the two-week temporary restraining orders that he and other judges in Colorado, Manhattan, and Pennsylvania had previously imposed.

White House national security adviser being forced out: reports

Meanwhile, Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz is being forced out of his job, four people briefed on the matter said on Thursday, in the first major shakeup of Trump’s inner circle since he took office in January.

Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, an Asia expert who was a State Department official focused on North Korea in Trump’s first term, is also leaving his post, two people told Reuters.

Waltz, a 51-year-old former Republican lawmaker from Florida, faced criticism inside the White House when he was caught up in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump national security aides.

It was not immediately clear who would take over from Waltz, but one option included US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in both Russia-Ukraine diplomacy as well as the Middle East, one of the sources said.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau was also considered a possible option, the same person said.

The National Security Council did not immediately reply to a request for comment.