The United States Supreme Court has halted deportation of immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act.
According to CNN, the highest court of the US early on Saturday morning, April 19, 2025, ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to stop deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members under wartime law.
Without explaining the court’s reasoning, the Supreme Court asked the federal government to respond to the emergency appeal after a lower court in Louisiana takes action in the case.
The court said, in the meantime, “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 court decision was disputed by two conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
This came after the attorneys for the Venezuelans filed an emergency appeal at the high court on Friday, April 18, 2025, asking to intervene, claiming their clients were at immediate risk of deportation and did not have sufficient means to challenge it.
US District Judge James Boasberg at an emergency hearing Friday night told a lawyer for the migrants, “I am sympathetic to everything you’re saying; I just don’t think I have the power to do anything. It’s hard for me to say I should inject myself into this controversy given where the issue stands in the 5th Circuit and the Supreme Court.”
Meanwhile, Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign told Boasberg that no flights are planned, but the Department of Homeland Security said it has the right to remove the migrants on Saturday.
Notably, the decision on Saturday was marked as the second time when Trump’s use of the authority has landed at the Supreme Court.
