Divided SCOTUS Says Deportations Can Resume

UPDATE Apr 7, 2025 6:32 PM CDT

The Supreme Court has lifted a court order blocking the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants under an 18th century wartime law. In a bitterly divided 5-4 decision Monday, the court said the migrants still must get a chance to challenge their deportation before they are taken out of the country and said the Trump administration must give them "reasonable time" to go to court, the AP reports. But the conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom. The justices acted on the administration's emergency appeal after the federal appeals court in Washington left in place an order temporarily prohibiting deportations of the migrants accused of being gang members under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act.

Mar 28, 2025 10:24 AM CDT

The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court for permission to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law, per the AP. The emergency appeal to the high court follows a rejection of the administration's plea to the federal appeals court in Washington. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of appellate judges left in place an order temporarily prohibiting deportations of the migrants under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act. The Justice Department argued in court papers that federal courts shouldn't interfere with sensitive diplomatic negotiations. It also claimed that migrants should make their case in a federal court in Texas, where they are being detained.

The order temporarily blocking the deportations was issued by US District Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge at the federal courthouse in Washington. President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to justify the deportation of hundreds of people under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force. "Here, the district court's orders have rebuffed the President's judgments as to how to protect the Nation against foreign terrorist organizations and risk debilitating effects for delicate foreign negotiations," acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the court filing.

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Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas, hours after the proclamation was made public. Boasberg imposed a temporary halt on deportations and ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the US. That did not happen. The judge has since vowed to determine whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around. The administration has invoked a "state secrets privilege" and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.

(More deportation stories.)