What to know about the Alien Enemies Act of 1798
President Trump wants to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Here’s what you need to know about the wartime law.
WASHINGTON −The Supreme Court on May 16 continued to block the Trump administration from using a 1798 wartime law to deport a group of Venezuelan migrants who said they had not been given enough of a chance to contest their removal.
The court built on its April 19 emergency order preventing deportation that was granted after lawyers for the migrants said they were at imminent risk of removal without the judicial review previously mandated by the justices.
But the court agreed with the administration that they can remove anyone who meets the deportation criteria under the regular immigration code.
The Supreme Court has not said whether it agrees with the administration that it can use that 1798 law to deport immigrants it says are members of a Venezuelan crime gang.
But the court ruled on April 8 that the deportations are subject to judicial review if migrants request it in the jurisdiction where they’re being held.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union said migrants being held in a Texas detention facility weren’t given a realistic opportunity to dispute their membership in a gang or otherwise fight deportation. The deportation notices they received were not in a language they could understand, did not inform them of their rights and did not allow time to exercise them, the lawyers contend.
“Under no plausible understanding of this Court’s ruling is that notice protocol satisfactory,” they told the justices.
The Justice Department said the detainees have had “adequate time” to challenge their deportations.
Solicitor General John Sauer also said the Supreme Court’s initial order “did not mandate any specific notice procedure.”
And, he argued, the migrants should not be allowed to ask the Supreme Court for help before the lower courts have had a chance to act.
In Texas, where the migrants were detained, a District Court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals each refused to block the removals so the lawyers asked the Supreme Court to intervene. Before the high court temporarily blocked the removals, migrants had been loaded onto buses that left their Texas facility, according to the ACLU filing.
Because there is no remedy for migrants who have already been deported, the ACLU lawyers asked the Supreme Court to provide guidance to lower courts about what measures are required for adequate notice to contest deportations.
President Donald Trump’s hardline approach to immigration and claims of broad executive authority have put the administration on a collision course with the courts.