Washington — On Monday, the Supreme Court permitted the Trump administration to resume deportations of migrants whom it alleges belong to a Venezuelan gang by utilizing a rarely invoked wartime authority.
The court’s decision was a narrow 5-4 vote to grant a request for emergency relief from the Justice Department regarding President Trump’s application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 aimed at swiftly removing supposed members of the Tren de Aragua gang without a hearing. Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the three liberal justices in expressing concern over the majority’s ruling.
In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court indicated that the detainees contesting their deportations under the Alien Enemies Act are currently held in Texas, and declared that the case’s venue is “improper” in the District of Columbia, where it has been previously considered.
“Consequently, the government is likely to prevail on the merits of this action,” the court stated in its decision, which lifted two temporary restraining orders from a federal district judge in Washington that had stalled removals under the Alien Enemies Act.
The ruling further stated that detainees affected by the 1798 law following the Supreme Court’s order “must receive notice” regarding their potential removal under the Alien Enemies Act.
“The notice must be provided within a reasonable timeframe and in a manner that will enable them to seek habeas relief in the proper venue prior to the removal taking place,” the court stipulated.
A federal district court had previously issued an order last month that barred the government from deporting the migrants under the over two-century-old law while legal proceedings were underway, prompting the administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court to lift that ban.
The high court’s ruling comes amidst increasing friction between the president and the judicial system, as efforts surrounding Mr. Trump’s second-term initiatives clash with federal courts. Over 100 cases contesting significant elements of his agenda have been filed nationwide, and legal challenges to at least six of the president’s actions have reached the Supreme Court, which maintains a conservative majority of 6-3.
The ongoing legal battle regarding Mr. Trump’s initiative to deport Venezuelan migrants rapidly is among the most prominent cases, and the district court’s ruling temporarily halting the deportations has led to calls from the president and his GOP supporters for the presiding judge to be impeached.
The Supreme Court’s decision affirms that detainees facing removal orders under the Alien Enemies Act are entitled to receive notice and an opportunity to contest their removals.
“The sole question is which court will adjudicate that challenge. For the reasons articulated, we determine that the venue is in the district of confinement,” the ruling asserted.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered a strong dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, and partially supported by Barrett. She described the majority’s legal interpretation as “suspect” and accused the Trump administration of largely neglecting “its obligations to uphold the rule of law.”
“The government’s actions in this litigation pose an extraordinary threat to the rule of law. It is indefensible that a majority of this court now rewards the government for its misconduct with discretionary equitable relief. As a nation and as a court of law, we should aspire to be better than this,” Sotomayor stated.
Mr. Trump issued a proclamation under the Alien Enemies Act last month, asserting that Tren de Aragua is “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion” into the U.S. and declaring that all members of the gang present in the country unlawfully were liable for immediate detention and removal. The law had only been invoked on three occasions prior, and exclusively during times of declared war.
The day following Mr. Trump’s proclamation, five Venezuelan nationals detained at a Texas facility filed a lawsuit alleging that the president’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act violated legal stipulations and requested a federal district court in Washington, D.C., to block their deportation.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg quickly ruled to halt their deportations for 14 days, later extending his order to prohibit the administration from removing all noncitizens in U.S. custody affected by Mr. Trump’s proclamation. While deportations under other legal measures were permitted, a hearing regarding a request for a longer preliminary injunction is scheduled for April 8, though the timeline is uncertain.
Boasberg is also looking into the situation surrounding the removal of 137 individuals under the Alien Enemies Act who were on flights to El Salvador as legal developments unfolded. This incident raised concerns about whether the Trump administration breached an oral order from Boasberg for any planes carrying migrants subject to removal under the law to return to the U.S.
The Trump administration sought to appeal Boasberg’s temporary ruling, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last month declined the administration’s request to reinstate the deportations. The appeals court decided 2-1 against the government’s motion to stop Boasberg’s injunction.
In the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris contended that the Alien Enemies Act offers the president sweeping authority concerning national security.
She argued in a filing that the district court’s ruling is “compelling the United States to harbor individuals whom national-security officials have identified as members of a foreign terrorist organization intent on causing severe harm to Americans. These orders — expected to prolong additional weeks — now endanger critical diplomatic negotiations and sensitive national-security operations aimed at eliminating TdA’s presence within our country before it can expand,” Harris stated.
The administration reiterated its appeal for the Supreme Court to intervene and halt the temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges, aiming to stop enforcement of a policy on a national level.
“The district court’s orders have thwarted the president’s efforts to ensure the nation’s security against foreign terrorist organizations and pose risks to delicate foreign negotiations,” Harris wrote. “More broadly, the prevalence of rule-by-TRO among district courts compromises the fundamental functions of the Executive Branch.”
However, attorneys representing the Venezuelan migrants accused the president of stretching the boundaries of the Alien Enemies Act, claiming that this could allow the government to “immediately begin whisking away anyone” whom it unilaterally identifies as a member of a criminal organization to a foreign prison.
“The president’s attempts to categorize a criminal gang under the AEA, based on a migration-equals-invasion rationale, fundamentally contradicts the limited wartime authority Congress has designated for him through this statute,” they stated in court documents.
They also contended that many of the individuals deported to a Salvadoran prison are not affiliated with Tren de Aragua, with at least eight being Venezuelan women that were subsequently returned to the U.S.
The lawyers asserted that resuming deportations would result in catastrophic outcomes for their clients, noting that 130 Venezuelan men have already been sent to El Salvador, where they face confinement incommunicado in one of the world’s most brutal prisons, rife with torture and other human rights abuses.
“Without the TRO, plaintiffs will endure extraordinary and irreparable harm — being deported from the United States to a Salvadoran prison, possibly remaining incommunicado for life, without having had the opportunity to contest their status as gang members,” stated the attorneys representing the migrants.
The Supreme Court is reviewing a separate request from the Trump administration to overturn a lower court ruling forcing the administration to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador back to the United States.
This man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, was among those on the deportation flights referenced in the case concerning the Alien Enemies Act, though he had been removed under a different immigration statute. Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily stayed the district court’s order, which had mandated an 11:59 p.m. Monday deadline for the government to return Abrego Garcia from El Salvador.
