US Supreme Court suspends deportations under wartime law
The US Supreme Court early on Saturday temporarily barred President Donald Trump’s administration from deporting alleged members of a Venezuelan criminal gang after their lawyers said they were at imminent risk of removal without the judicial review previously mandated by the justices.
“The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,” the justices said in a brief, unsigned decision.
The White House on Saturday did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented from the decision, issued around 12:55 a.m.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (Aclu) filed urgent requests on Friday in multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, urging immediate action after reporting that some of the men had already been loaded onto buses and were told they were to be deported.
The Aclu said the rapid developments meant the administration was poised to deport the men using a 1798 law that historically has been employed only in wartime without affording them a realistic opportunity to contest their removal—as the Supreme Court had required.
‘Imminent danger’
“These men were in imminent danger of spending their lives in a horrific foreign prison without ever having had a chance to go to court. We are relieved that the Supreme Court has not permitted the administration to whisk them away the way others were just last month,” said Lee Gelernt, the Aclu’s lead attorney in the case, said in a statement on Saturday.
The Alien Enemies Act does not require due process for foreigners ensnared under the law. It further gives authority to the US president to “apprehend, restrain, secure and remove” alien enemies “as he shall prescribe.”
Advocacy groups however cite the fifth amendment which requires due process for all persons.
The case carries the risk of a significant clash between the two coequal branches of government and potentially a full-blown constitutional crisis.
Elected last year on a promise to crack down on migrants, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in an attempt to swiftly deport accused members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang originating from Venezuelan prisons that his administration labels a terrorist group.
Balance of power
The president and his senior aides have asserted their executive power grants them wide authority on immigration matters, testing the balance of power between branches of government.
During a hearing on Friday, a government lawyer said in a related case that he was unaware of plans by the Department of Homeland Security to deport the men on Friday but there could be deportations on Saturday.
Trump scored one victory on Friday when an appeals court put on hold a threat by District Judge James Boasberg of contempt charges.
Boasberg also denied an Aclu request to block Trump from deporting suspected members of Tren de Aragua, citing an April 7 Supreme Court ruling that allowed Trump to use the Alien Enemies Act, albeit with certain limits.
Boasberg said he was concerned the government would deport additional people as soon as Saturday but that, “At this point I just don’t think I have the power to do anything about it.”
Trump previously called for Boasberg’s impeachment following an adverse ruling, prompting a rare rebuke from US Chief Justice John Roberts.
While one hearing played out in Boasberg’s court, the Aclu worked on a separate track to halt the deportations of Venezuelans held in Texas.
Aclu lawyers filed with the Supreme Court after failing to get a rapid response from earlier filings on Friday before US District Judge James Hendrix in Abilene, Texas and the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to block any such deportations.
