The Trump administration made an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court hear its case for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport members of a Venezuelan gang, CNN reported.

The alleged members were sent to an El Salvador prison.

The administration is asking the high court to reverse an order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, of the District of Columbia, blocking further deportations under the act.

“This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country—the President, through Article II, or the Judiciary, through TROs. The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President,” Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote, according to NBC News . “The republic cannot afford a different choice.”

A federal appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, denied the Trump administration’s request to lift a temporary restraining order by Boasberg.

Boasberg, an appointee of President Barack Obama, issued a restraining order against Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to deport illegal immigrants believed to be part of Tren de Aragua.

However, the alleged gang members were already in international air space when the judge issued his written ruling, on the way to detention in El Salvador .

Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan gang, which the Trump administration designated as a terrorist organization. The 1798 Alien Enemies Act allows a president to fast-track the removals under national security concerns.

Trump has called for Boasberg to be impeached .

In the 2-1 appeals court ruling upholding the Boasberg order, U.S. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote the majority opinion to reject the Trump administration’s appeal. The ruling determined the Alien Enemies Act was not triggered by the presence of the Tren de Aragua members.

The law—that allows emergency deportation without a hearing—has been used only three times in U.S. history, and typically in a military context, Henderson noted.

“Conditional questions—the legal meaning of war, invasion and predatory incursion—are well within courts’ bailiwick,” Henderson wrote for the majority, as reported in The Wall Street Journal.

Writing in the dissent was U.S. Circuit Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee. He asserted the five Venezuelans named in the suit as plaintiffs should have filed in federal court near the Raymondville, Texas, immigration lockup where they presently are held.

Walker contended that Boasberg’s “orders risk the possibility that those foreign actors will change their minds about allowing the United States to remove Tren de Aragua members to their countries.”