The Trump administration can’t move forward with plans to deport more Venezuelan migrants it has accused of being gang members, the Supreme Court said early Saturday.
The administration had scheduled to fly more than 50 migrants from an immigration detention center in Texas to El Salvador, using the rarely invoked Alien Enemies Act, The New York Times reported. Justices temporarily blocked the plans as the case plays out in a federal appeals court in Louisiana, CNN reported.
“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,” CNN quoted the court as saying. No reason was given, and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr. dissented.
The order came after attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency appeal on Friday, saying the migrants were not provided enough notice to challenge their deportation.
“These men were close to spending their lives in a horrific foreign prison without ever having had any due process,” The Times quoted A.C.L.U attorney Lee Gelernt as saying. “The case has a long way to go. But for now, we are relieved that the court has not allowed the Trump administration to hurry them away in secret.”
This is the second time the Supreme Court has considered Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, CNN reported.
Last week the justices allowed Trump to use it but said migrants need to be notified of the act and given a chance for a federal court to review their cases. Only courts in the places where the migrants were being detained could review the cases, justices said.
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