Donald Trump brings back 227-year-old wartime law under ‘one condition’
President Donald Trump will be allowed to deport Venezuelan migrants under an 18th-century wartime law, the Supreme Court has said – under one condition.
Controversial even when it was introduced, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was last used to intern 120,000 people of Japanese heritage, along with tens of thousands of Germans and Italians, during World War Two.
Trump invoked it last month, promising to tackle what he calls an ‘invasion’ of Tren De Aragua, a criminal organisation from Venezuela.
The Trump administration deported a large number of alleged ‘members’ of the gang to El Salvador’s infamous mega prison beginning in March – sparking outrage as those detained weren’t given a trial.
Now, in a bitterly divided decision, the Supreme Court said Venezuelans that Trump claims are gang members must be given ‘reasonable time’ to go to court, in a Texas courtroom.
The court’s action appears to bar the administration from immediately resuming the controversial deportation flights which have carried hundreds of migrants to El Salvador – including a father who was sent ‘by mistake’.
The flights took off without providing the hearing the justices say is necessary.
In dissent, three liberal justices said the administration has sought to avoid judicial review in this case and the court ‘rewards the government for its behaviour.’
The Supreme Court justices acted on the administration’s emergency appeal after the federal appeals court temporarily prohibited deportations of the migrants accused of being gang members.
‘For all the rhetoric of the dissents… the detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal,’ they said.
The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts.
It is the second time in less than a week that a majority of conservative justices has handed Trump at least a partial victory in an emergency appeal after lower courts had blocked parts of his agenda.
Several other cases are pending, including over the president’s plan to deny citizenship to US-born children of parents who are in the country illegally.
Trump praised the court for its action on Monday, writing on Truth Social: ‘The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself. A GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!’
The original order blocking the deportations to El Salvador was issued by US District Judge James E Boasberg, the chief judge at the federal courthouse in Washington.
Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelans who were being held in Texas, hours after the proclamation was made public and as immigration authorities were shepherding hundreds of migrants to waiting airplanes.
Judge Boasberg imposed a temporary halt on deportations and also ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the US, which did not happen.
The judge held a hearing last week over whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around.
Trump invoked ‘state secrets privileges’ and refused to give the judge any additional information about the deportations.
Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Judge Boasberg, prompting a rare statement from Chief Justice John Roberts: ‘Impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.’
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