Supreme Court Blocks, for Now, New Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act

The Supreme Court on Saturday blocked, for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th-century wartime law.In a brief order, the court directed the Trump administration not to remove Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.”Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.The high court acted in an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union contending that immigration authorities appeared to be moving to restart removals under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The Supreme Court had said earlier in April that deportations could proceed only if those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.“We are deeply relieved that the Court has temporarily blocked the removals. These individuals were in imminent danger of spending the rest of their lives in a brutal Salvadoran prison without ever having had any due process,” ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said in an email.On Friday, two federal judges refused to step in as lawyers for the men launched a desperate legal campaign to prevent their deportation, even as one judge said the case raised legitimate concerns. Early Saturday, the Fifth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals also refused to issue an order protecting the detainees from being deported.The administration is expected to return to the Supreme Court quickly in an effort to persuade the justices to lift their temporary order.In 1948, the Supreme Court in the case of Ludecke v. Watkins upheld the president’s authority to expel foreign nationals under the Alien Enemies Act. In that case, a Nazi, Kurt Ludecke, was ordered by President Truman to be removed from America.In Ludecke, the high court held that the law could be deployed by the president without substantial oversight from federal courts. That position was echoed by the Supreme Court in a recent ruling in a deportation dispute when the majority explained that the act “largely ‘preclude[s] judicial review.’”In the current dispute the ACLU had already sued to block deportations of two Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet facility and sought an order barring removals of any immigrants in the region under the Alien Enemies Act.In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan men held there of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which would make them subject to President Donald Trump’s use of the act.The act has only been invoked rarely in American history. The Trump administration contends it gave them power to swiftly remove immigrants they identified as members of the gang, regardless of their immigration status.Following the unanimous high court order on April 9, federal judges in Colorado, New York and southern Texas promptly issued orders barring removal of detainees under the AEA until the administration provides a process for them to make claims in court.Yet there had been no such order issued in the area of Texas that covers Bluebonnet, which is located 24 miles north of Abilene in the far northern end of the state.

Supreme Court Blocks, for Now, New Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act

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