The Donald Trump administration received a major blow from the court as it has paused the deportation of immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act that the administration recently invoked. It was a 7-2 verdict as conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. An emergency appeal was filed at the high court on Friday claiming that some Venezuelans were at the immediate risk of being removed from the country without due process.
The Saturday order did not explain why it decided to stall the deportation but said to the administration that the government can not remove any members of the putative class of detainees from the US until further order.
The Alien Enemies Act, 1798 is a wartime law which authorizes the government to remove alien enemies. It is invoked during a declared war or any invasion or a predatory incursion. It was last invoked in World War Two. Trump invoked the Act to deport Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang members operating in the country, “conducting irregular warfare”.
It will not be the first time if the administration bypasses the ruling and reports them. In March, the administration did the same when it deported 238 alleged members of Tren de Aragua and 23 members of a Salvadoran gang to El Salvador. A US federal judge suspended the deportation but the administration contended that the planes exited the country when the ruling came.
Billionaire and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman who recently voiced his displeasure at Trump tariff rued at the fact that each deportation is now being weighed on by the court. “A nation in which one administration can allow millions of unvetted illegal migrants into the country, but requires that a court vet each deportation decision in an individually adjudicated case will soon lose the values our democratic system was intended to preserve,” he said taking a jibe at the Joe Biden administration for allowing the illegals to enter the country.
Elon Musk agreed and wrote: “This is the hard truth”.
Musk also shared a statement by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who said all human rights are not the same and the most important human right is the right to life. Bukele during his meeting with Trump
