Supreme Court Halts Trump’s Next Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act

The Supreme Court blocked Donald Trump’s administration from another round of deportations under the Alien Enemies Act in the early hours of Saturday. Their ruling was made after lawyers said in an emergency appeal that a group of immigrants from Venezuela detained in Texas were slated for deportation, potentially to El Salvador, in violation of a previous Supreme Court decision affirming the immigrants’ right to challenge their removal.

The short ruling was filed at 1 a.m. It ordered the Trump administration to freeze the deportations “until further order of this court.” Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. 

Attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward had filed an emergency appeal Friday after a district court judge in Washington, D.C. denied a temporary restraining order for the group of immigrants, saying doing so was beyond his power. According to the lawyers, “numerous” Venezuelans had been told by the government that they would be removed under the Alien Enemies Act on Friday or Saturday. Many of the Venezuelans, allegedly gang members, had already been loaded onto buses, the lawyers wrote.

“The government’s actions to-date, including its lightning-fast timeline, do not give members of the proposed class a realistic opportunity to contest their removal” under the Alien Enemies Act, the lawyers wrote. They argued that carrying out these deportations would violate the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month in JGG v. Trump, which found that detainees are entitled to challenge their removal and should do so in the place where they are detained.

A group of Venezuelan immigrants had previously been deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act despite an order by the same district court judge that banned the move, Judge James Boasberg. Boasberg found earlier this week that there is “probable cause” to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating this order.

The Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century law, gives the president sweeping authority during a time of war to deport people from an enemy nation. It was used to legitimize Japanese internment during World War II. Trump has invoked the law claiming that Venezuelan gangs have invaded the United States.

“The Supreme Court’s decision to act with such urgency may signal its concern with the executive branch’s apparent disregard for the due process requirements laid out in its recent JGG decision,” Patrick Jaicomo, a senior lawyer with the center-right Institute for Justice, tells Rolling Stone.

Whether the Trump administration will follow the orders remains to be seen. The Trump administration has so far ignored the high court’s ruling to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man whom the administration illegally shipped to prison in El Salvador. 

“Notwithstanding the specifics of the orders in JGG and Garcia, the executive branch’s broader response has been that it can do whatever it wants, unfettered,” says Jaicomo. “That’s clearly inconsistent with both recent Supreme Court rulings … If there’s a constitutional crisis coming, its origin is the executive branch, not the judiciary.”

The case will now be heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court invited Trump’s Solicitor General to respond to the ACLU’s application before the justices once the Fifth Circuit has weighed in.