US Supreme Court halts deportation of Venezuelans under wartime law

The US Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to pause the deportation of a group of accused Venezuelan gang members.

A civil liberties group is suing the administration over planned deportations of Venezuelans detained in north Texas under an 18th-century wartime law.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court ordered the government not to remove any of the detainees “until further order of this Court”.

Donald Trump has sent accused Venezuelan gang members to a notorious mega-jail in El Salvador, invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act which gives the president power to order the detention and deportation of natives or citizens of “enemy” nations without usual processes.

The act had previously been used only three times, all during war.

It was last invoked in World War Two, when people of Japanese descent were imprisoned without trial and thousands sent to internment camps.

Trump had accused Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua of “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion” on US territory.

Out of 261 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador as of 8 April, 137 were removed under the Alien Enemies Act, a senior administration official told CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner.

A lower court temporarily blocked these deportations on 15 March.

The Supreme Court initially ruled on 8 April that Trump could use the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members, but deportees must be given a chance to challenge their removal.

The lawsuit that resulted in Saturday’s order said the Venezuelans detained in north Texas had been given notices about their imminent deportation in English, despite one detainee only speaking Spanish.

The challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also said the men had not been told they had a right to contest the decision in court.

“Without this Court’s intervention, dozens or hundreds of proposed class members may be removed to a possible life sentence in El Salvador with no real opportunity to contest their designation or removal,” the lawsuit read.

Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented on Saturday.