Topline
The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration Friday from making further deportations under the centuries-old wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act, marking the high court’s latest challenge against President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
The Supreme Court decision was issued Friday. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Key Facts
The Supreme Court, which voted 7-2 in favor of an injunction against the removal of Venezuelan nations, said in an unsigned decision the Trump administration did not provide detainees enough time to challenge their removal in court.
The administration has attempted to use the law to abruptly remove migrants it claims are affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito wrote dissenting arguments, disputing the circumstances of the nationals’ detainment last month among other things.
The Supreme Court did not explicitly rule on whether the Alien Enemies Act was properly applied by Trump, which will be determined by an appeals court.
The high court mentioned Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, in its decision, saying the interests at stake for the Venezuelan nationals are “particularly weighty” given the Trump administration has claimed it cannot facilitate the return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. despite court orders demanding it do so.
Trump reacted to the Supreme Court’s decision, saying in a Truth Social post, “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!”
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Big Number
238. That is how many Venezuelans were deported under the Alien Enemies Act in March.
Key Background
The Supreme Court’s decision comes after a crucial ruling made by District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. early this month in which he argued the Trump administration used and interpreted the Alien Enemies Act improperly, indefinitely blocking the president from using the law to deport more people. The law, which has otherwise been used just three times in U.S. history and was created in 1798, can only be invoked when a foreign country is carrying out or threatening an “invasion or predatory incursion” into the U.S. Rodriguez argued Trump’s invocation of the law “makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of an organized, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation.”
