Supreme Court Blocks Trump Administration’s Use Of Alien Enemies Act To Speed Deportation

On Friday, the Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump‘s administration from resuming the deportations of Venezuelans under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.

The Trump Administration, which has been conducting deportations on a greater scale than during his first term, has been attempting to use the Alien Enemies Act to speed up the deportations. By utilizing the Alien Enemies Act, the administration could forgo the review typically required to remove people from the U.S.

The Supreme Court has already issued a temporary pause on the deportations. With the blocking of the administration from using the Act to continue deporting Venezuelans, the Trump administration must look for other ways to accomplish its goals.

The issue before the court is the use of the Alien Enemies Act on Venezuelan men who are accused of being gang members. This designation makes the men eligible for removal from the country based on being “foreign enemies” of the U.S.

With the dissenting votes of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

By sending back the case to the court of Appeals, the court questioned the legality of the administration’s deportations under the Alien Enemies Act and the extent to which the migrants targeted under the act should receive notices in advance of their removal from the country.

The court highlighted how the short notice of 24 hours for migrants’ removals did not grant migrants enough time to exercise their due process rights to appeal against their removal.

This case is one of many related to Trump’s invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in March to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador. After Trump named the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization, the administration has greatly increased the speed of the deportations.