Trump’s use of wartime law for deportations faces legal setback in Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday maintained its block on President Donald Trump’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a law historically used only in wartime.

The court faulted the administration for attempting to remove migrants without providing an adequate legal process, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

In a brief, unsigned ruling, the justices granted a request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which represents the migrants, to continue halting the removals. This follows the court’s April 19 order temporarily stopping deportations of dozens of migrants held at a Texas detention centre.

The migrants are accused by the administration of ties to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal gang designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the State Department. The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations to El Salvador, where detainees are held in a maximum-security prison under a $6 million deal with President Nayib Bukele’s government.

The Supreme Court ruled that notifying migrants roughly 24 hours before removal, without explaining their right to contest deportation, fails to meet due process requirements. “Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster,” the court stated.

President Trump criticised the ruling on social media, calling it “a bad and dangerous day for America,” and lamented that illegal immigrants accused of crimes face a “long, protracted, and expensive Legal Process” before deportation.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. Alito questioned the court’s authority to intervene at this stage and doubted the legality of granting relief to the migrants as a group.

The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, instructed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to determine the specific procedures needed to satisfy constitutional due process in this case. The court also clarified that the administration may still pursue deportations under other immigration laws.

The case highlights concerns over the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act in peacetime to bypass standard deportation procedures. The act, last used during World War II, allows the president to detain or deport individuals affiliated with foreign powers who pose a national security risk.

ACLU lead attorney Lee Gelernt praised the ruling, calling it a “powerful rebuke” to the government’s “attempt to hurry people away to a Gulag-type prison” without due process.

The administration’s deportation efforts follow earlier Supreme Court limits set on April 7, which required detainees to receive timely notice to challenge removals under the wartime law. Migrants and their lawyers have argued that many were not given the chance for judicial review before being sent to El Salvador.

By Tamilla Hasanova