WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members under a rarely used wartime law, but the government urged the justices to lift their order.
The court issued the decision after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union asked it to intervene on an emergency basis, saying dozens of Venezuelan migrants faced imminent deportation without the judicial review the justices previously ordered.
“The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,” the justices said earlier in a brief, unsigned decision.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented from the decision, issued around 12:55 a.m. (0455 GMT).
The Trump administration filed a response on Saturday afternoon urging the justices, once they review the matter further, to formally reject the ACLU’s request on the migrants’ behalf.
The White House responded that President Donald Trump would stay the course in his immigration crackdown but gave no immediate indication that the administration would defy the Supreme Court, appearing for now to avert a potential constitutional crisis between coequal branches of government.
Although it was unclear where the Venezuelan migrants were headed, the Trump administration already has deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador more than 200 Venezuelan and Salvadoran men it claims are gang members.
The deportees included Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant whom the administration admitted was removed by mistake, igniting an outcry over its immigration policy.
Many of the migrants’ lawyers and family members say they were not gang members and had no chance to dispute the government’s assertion that they were.
“We are confident in the lawfulness of the Administration’s actions and in ultimately prevailing against an onslaught of meritless litigation brought by radical activists who care more about the rights of terrorist aliens than those of the American people,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The case has raised questions about whether Trump, who has shown a willingness at times to defy court decisions since returning to office on January 20, will comply with limits set by the nation’s highest court.
Men loaded aboard buses
The high court majority issued Saturday’s stay after ACLU lawyers filed urgent requests for immediate action in multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, after reporting that some of the men already had been loaded aboard buses and were told they were to be deported.
The ACLU said the administration was poised to deport the men using a 1798 law that historically has been employed only in wartime without affording them a realistic opportunity to contest their removal – as the Supreme Court had ordered.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, in a written filing, asked the court to lift its temporary order halting the deportations to first allow lower courts to resolve the “adequacy of notice that designated enemy aliens receive.”
Barring that action, Sauer wrote, the court should clarify its order to say that it “does not preclude the government from removing detainees pursuant to authorities other than the Alien Enemies Act.”
Sauer said the government provided advance notice with “adequate time” to the detainees prior to starting deportations – though he did not say how much time was given.
Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney in the case, said in a statement earlier on Saturday: “These men were in imminent danger of spending their lives in a horrific foreign prison without ever having had a chance to go to court. We are relieved that the Supreme Court has not permitted the administration to whisk them away the way others were just last month.”
In an audio recording posted on TikTok, several men said they were Venezuelans falsely accused of being gang members and held at Bluebonnet immigration detention center in Texas. They said they were taken by bus to a regional airport late on Friday but then returned.
The recording has not been verified by Reuters. An earlier post on TikTok from the same account was cited in court filings on Friday.
More than 50 Venezuelans had been scheduled to be flown out of the country — presumably to El Salvador — from the immigration center, the New York Times cited two people with knowledge of the situation as saying.
Among the detainees was Diover Millan, 24, a Venezuelan who came to the U.S. in 2023, had no criminal record and was granted temporary protected status, according to his wife, who declined to give her full name for fear of retaliation.
I’m scared,” she said her husband, who was arrested in Atlanta last month, told her. The men were told they would be being taken to the CECOT prison in El Salvador but the bus turned back after one of the officials got a phone call, she said.
Elected last year on a promise to crack down on migrants, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in a bid to swiftly deport accused members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang originating from Venezuelan prisons that his administration labels a terrorist group.
Trump and his senior aides have asserted their executive power grants them wide authority on immigration matters, testing the balance of power between branches of government.
The administration scored one victory on Friday when an appeals court put on hold a threat by District Judge James Boasberg of contempt charges.
Trump previously called for Boasberg’s impeachment following an adverse ruling, prompting a rare rebuke from U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts.
Habeas corpus relief
The Venezuelans’ deportation would be the first since the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that allowed removals under the 1798 law while specifying that “the notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs.”
Habeas corpus relief refers to the right of detainees to challenge the legality of their detention. It is considered a bedrock right under U.S. law.
The Supreme Court did not indicate how much notice should be provided. Lawyers around the country have asked that the migrants be given 30 days’ notice to allow them to contest their deportations.
Asked about the planned deportations on Friday, Trump said he was unfamiliar with the particular case but added: “If they’re bad people, I would certainly authorize it.”
“That’s why I was elected. A judge wasn’t elected,” he told reporters at the White House.
By REUTERS
Reporting by Andrew Chung and Luc Cohen in New York, Kristina Cooke in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Jack Queen in New York, Nandita Bose in Washington and Natalia Siniawski in Mexico City; Writing by Daniel Trotta, Matt Spetalnick and Phil Stewart; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Howard Goller, Daniel Wallis, William Mallard, Diane Craft and Sandra Maler
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