Supreme Court extends pause on deportations under Alien Enemies Act

The justices on Friday issued a decision to extend an injunction that blocks the Trump administration from deporting more suspected members of the Venezuelan-based gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the unsigned order. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of Venezuelan migrants, arguing that they had not been given enough time to contest their removal orders. The justices had ordered that the Trump administration must give each deportee judicial review if they request it in the jurisdiction where they are being detained. Friday’s ruling extends the pause on the Alien Enemies Act until any appeals among a group detained in Texas are resolved. The government has said it complied with the earlier Supreme Court order by notifying migrants within 24 hours that they would be detained. But justices wrote in Friday’s order that “surely does not pass muster.”

What does the ruling mean? The justices expressed concern that the Trump administration is deporting migrants without fully proving that they meet deportation criteria. They granted the ACLU’s request for an extended injunction, but denied its request to rule on whether Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act is constitutional. The justices returned the question to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

What is the Trump administration doing? Solicitor General D. John Sauer has argued that migrants should not be allowed to appeal to the Supreme Court before lower courts rule on the issue. The White House has said that it does not have the authority to return the more than 200 suspected gang members who were already flown to a prison in El Salvador, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly included in the group. While the White House maintains that he is likely a gang member, an immigration court ruled that he cannot be deported to his home country.

Dig deeper: Read a report by Josh Schumacher and Leo Briceno about the Alien Enemies Act and how Trump wants to use it.