Latest news with #HabeasCorpusAct
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Let's Unpack One of the More Disturbing Things Stephen Miller Has Said
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Ever since President Donald Trump took office, he's been violating the law left and right to reach his mass deportation goals—and he's faced an onslaught of lawsuits, a majority of which he's losing. In private, Trump has said he wants to deport 1 million immigrants in 2025, according to the Washington Post—but in his first 100 days, the numbers suggested he was not deporting people on a greater scale than past presidents. The judiciary—including judges appointed by Trump himself during his first term—has been the main line of defense against his lawless actions. The courts have particularly been a thorn in the Trump administration's side when it comes to the case of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the administration admitted was deported by mistake. Multiple federal judges ruled Abrego Garcia must be brought back home, and even the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to 'facilitate' his return, yet the father of three remains in El Salvador's CECOT megaprison. The Supreme Court went even further earlier this month, blocking Trump's efforts to continue the illegal extradition flights and declaring that the affected migrants had not been granted their full due process rights during the administration's attempts to rush deportation flights to third-party countries. Instead of respecting court orders, the Trump administration is now eyeing a workaround: Cutting out the courts by suspending habeas corpus. The administration has its eye on habeas corpus because it's a legal principle that requires the government to come before a judge and provide a reason for detaining and imprisoning people. In recent weeks, Trump officials have begun suggesting that they can simply revoke habeas corpus. Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters that 'the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. So I would say that's an option we're actively looking at.' During a recent congressional hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem incorrectly defined habeas corpus as 'a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their rights.' The executive branch, though, does not have the unilateral authority to simply pause habeas corpus as it pleases. In order to understand what habeas corpus is and how it can be suspended—if it can at all, I spoke with Steve Vladeck, professor of law at Georgetown University and author of the Substack newsletter One First. Habeas corpus gives anyone who believes they have been unlawfully detained by the government a way to contest the legality of their detention. It was adopted in British common law and was formally codified under the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, where it remains in effect in England today. When the founders established the legal foundation of the United States, they brought this concept along with them. Today, habeas corpus is enshrined under Article 1 of the Constitution. It comes before the Bill of Rights, which, Vladeck believes, suggests that the founders wanted to prioritize establishing the existence of habeas while also specifying the only circumstance under which it could be taken away. 'What habeas really is, it's a guarantee of judicial review. That is, in some respects, more than just a right,' Vladeck told me. 'That is actually a fundamental constraint on the government, where even if you had no other rights, you would be entitled to have a court say so, as opposed to the executive branch.' The Trump administration wants to cut off immigration detainees' pathway for judicial review, essentially clearing the way for deportations without interference from the courts. Suspending habeas corpus is technically possible under the suspension clause, which states that 'the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.' This clause has only been invoked four times in U.S. history: in 1861 during the Civil War; in 1871 when the Ku Klux Klan was committing mass violence against Black Americans in the South; in 1905 during a rebellion against the American military in the Philippines while it was still a U.S. territory; and in 1941, in the midst of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The suspension clause can only be invoked by Congress, not the president, despite what the Trump administration has said. It also specifically limits the circumstances under which habeas can be suspended, rather than revoking habeas corpus in its entirety, because the founders wanted to ensure that judicial review of detention cases could still continue even in a true emergency. The reality is that the Trump administration is likely hoping that 'no one actually pays close attention to the text,' Vladeck said, 'because it's not just that we're not actually being invaded by anyone right now, it's that even the suspension clause does not authorize suspensions by the president, ever.' It's worth noting that even during the War of 1812 when Great Britain invaded the U.S., the suspension clause was not invoked—it's meant only for truly egregious national emergencies. Right now, of course, Trump is trying every potential legal tool in the kit, as further demonstrated by his use of the Alien Enemies Act, a separate wartime law passed in 1798 that's only ever been invoked three times in U.S. history. 'I think what the Trump administration is counting on is that it can sort of discuss suspending habeas corpus at a high enough level of abstraction that it all appears to blur together,' Vladeck explained, 'when the legal authorities are in fact much, much more nuanced and much, much more specific.' Miller said that whether the Trump administration tries to suspend habeas corpus or not depends on 'whether the courts do the right thing or not.' He was basically saying the quiet part out loud: that it's a threat from the executive branch to twist the arm of the judiciary. Since Trump began his second term, habeas corpus has been critical in keeping his administration in check. It is the first and only legal pathway for challenging immigration detention. It's how Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish international student at Tufts University, was able to get out of immigration detention in Louisiana, along with Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student who is a lawful green-card holder. Cristian Farias, a courts reporter for Vanity Fair, told Slate's Dahlia Lithwick that 'to file a habeas petition is basically what ensures that you won't be sent to a black site or put in a prison without ever getting out.' Considering also that there have been at least three cases where a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to bring back wrongfully deported immigrants, habeas is the sole lifeline for detainees to get back their freedom. 'Without habeas, there'd be no mechanism by which someone could challenge the Trump administration's designation that they are, for example, an alien enemy,' Vladeck said. 'There's nothing to stop the government from pointing to any of us, citizen or noncitizen, and saying, you know, 'You are an alien enemy'—or an undocumented immigrant.'
21-05-2025
- Politics
Kristi Noem says habeas corpus lets Trump 'remove people from this country'
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the constitutional provision that allows people to legally challenge their detention by the government is actually a tool the Trump administration can use in its broader crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border. She called habeas corpus 'a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their rights.' Noem, testifying before a congressional committee Tuesday, gave that response when asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan to define the legal concept. 'That's incorrect,' the New Hampshire Democrat swiftly interrupted Noem, defining the 'legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people." Hassan, a former attorney who practiced in Boston, went on to call habeas corpus 'the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.' The back and forth follows comments by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who said earlier this month that President Donald Trump is looking for ways to expand his administration's legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally. To achieve that, Miller said the administration is 'actively looking at' suspending habeas corpus. The Latin term means, literally, 'you have the body.' Federal courts use a writ of habeas corpus to bring a prisoner before a neutral judge to determine if imprisonment is legal. Habeas corpus was included in the Constitution as an import from English common law. Parliament enacted the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which was meant to ensure that the king released prisoners when the law did not justify confining them. The Constitution's Suspension Clause, the second clause of Section 9 of Article I, states that habeas corpus 'shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.' Yes. The United States has suspended habeas corpus under four distinct circumstances during its history. Those usually involved authorization from Congress, something that would be nearly impossible today — even at Trump's urging — given the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate. President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus multiple times during the Civil War, beginning in 1861 to detain suspected spies and Confederate sympathizers. He ignored a ruling from Roger Taney, the Supreme Court 's chief justice. Congress then authorized suspending it in 1863, which allowed Lincoln to do so again. Congress acted similarly under President Ulysses S. Grant, suspending habeas corpus in parts of South Carolina under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, it was meant to counter violence and intimidation by groups that opposed Reconstruction in the South. Habeas corpus was suspended in two provinces of the Philippines in 1905, when it was a U.S. territory and authorities were worried about the threat of an insurrection, and in Hawaii after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor but before it became a state in 1959. Writing before becoming a Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett co-authored a piece stating that the Suspension Clause 'does not specify which branch of government has the authority to suspend the privilege of the writ, but most agree that only Congress can do it.' Miller has said the administration is considering trying. 'The Constitution is clear, and that of course is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' he told reporters outside the White House on May 9. 'So, I would say that's an option we're actively looking at,' Miller said. 'Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.' Asked by Hassan on Tuesday if she supported the provision, Noem said she did, adding that 'the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.' Hassan, who responded by saying that even Lincoln had obtained 'retroactive approval' from Congress, then asked Noem if she would follow a court order overturning a theoretical suspension of habeas corpus, or if she would follow Trump's decision. Noem said she was 'following all court orders ... as is the president,' prompting Hassan to say 'that is obviously not true for anybody who reads the news." John Blume, a professor at Cornell Law School, said Noem's response to Hassan was either evidence that she 'fundamentally misunderstands habeas corpus' or 'was giving an answer she knew was wrong to appease the president.' Should the administration argue that the constitutional provision should be suspended due to what Trump officials have characterized as an 'invasion' by migrants, Blume said he felt such a position would be 'very unlikely to fly' with the U.S. Supreme Court. It can try. Miller suggested that the U.S. is facing an 'invasion' of migrants. That term was used deliberately, though any effort to suspend habeas corpus would spark legal challenges questioning whether the country was in fact facing an invasion, let alone one that presented extraordinary threats to public safety. Federal judges have so far been skeptical of the Trump administration's past efforts to use extraordinary powers to make deportations easier, and that could make suspending habeas corpus even tougher. Trump argued in March that the United States was facing an 'invasion' of Venezuelan gang members and evoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority he has tried to use to speed up mass deportations. His administration acted to swiftly deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua to a notorious prison in El Salvador, leading to a series of legal fights. Federal courts around the country, including in New York, Colorado, Texas and Pennsylvania, have since blocked the administration's uses of the Alien Enemies Act for many reasons, including by raising questions about whether the country is truly facing an invasion. Miller, who has been fiercely critical of judges ruling against the administration, advanced the argument that the judicial branch may not get to decide. 'Congress passed a body of law known as the Immigration Nationality Act which stripped Article III courts, that's the judicial branch, of jurisdiction over immigration cases,' he said earlier this month. That statute was approved by Congress in 1952 and there were important amendments in 1996 and 2005. Legal scholars note that it does contain language that could funnel certain cases to immigration courts, which are overseen by the executive branch. Still, most appeals in those cases would largely be handled by the judicial branch, and they could run into the same issues as Trump's attempts to use the Alien Enemies Act. The U.S. system of government is divided into three branches: executive (the president), legislative (Congress) and judicial (the courts). Technically not since Pearl Harbor, though habeas corpus has been at the center of some major legal challenges more recently than that. Republican President George W. Bush did not move to suspend habeas corpus after the Sept. 11 attacks, but his administration subsequently sent detainees to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drawing lawsuits from advocates who argued the administration was violating it and other legal constitutional protections. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo detainees had a constitutional right to habeas corpus, allowing them to challenge their detention before a judge. That led to some detainees being released.
Boston Globe
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Homeland Security secretary says habeas corpus lets Trump ‘remove people from this country'
Advertisement The back and forth follows comments by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who said earlier this month that President Donald Trump is looking for ways to expand his administration's legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally. To achieve that, Miller said the administration is 'actively looking at' suspending habeas corpus. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up What is habeas corpus? The Latin term means, literally, 'you have the body.' Federal courts use a writ of habeas corpus to bring a prisoner before a neutral judge to determine if imprisonment is legal. Habeas corpus was included in the Constitution as an import from English common law. Parliament enacted the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which was meant to ensure that the king released prisoners when the law did not justify confining them. Advertisement The Constitution's Suspension Clause, the second clause of Section 9 of Article I, states that habeas corpus 'shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.' Has it been suspended previously? Yes. The United States has suspended habeas corpus under four distinct circumstances during its history. Those usually involved authorization from Congress, something that would be nearly impossible today — even at Trump's urging — given the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate. President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus multiple times during the Civil War, beginning in 1861 to detain suspected spies and Confederate sympathizers. He ignored a ruling from Roger Taney, the Supreme Court 's chief justice. Congress then authorized suspending it in 1863, which allowed Lincoln to do so again. Congress acted similarly under President Ulysses S. Grant, suspending habeas corpus in parts of South Carolina under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, it was meant to counter violence and intimidation by groups that opposed Reconstruction in the South. Habeas corpus was suspended in two provinces of the Philippines in 1905, when it was a U.S. territory and authorities were worried about the threat of an insurrection, and in Hawaii after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor but before it became a state in 1959. Writing before becoming a Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett co-authored a piece stating that the Suspension Clause 'does not specify which branch of government has the authority to suspend the privilege of the writ, but most agree that only Congress can do it.' What has the Trump administration said about suspending it? Miller has said the administration is considering trying. Advertisement 'The Constitution is clear, and that of course is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' he told reporters outside the White House on May 9. 'So, I would say that's an option we're actively looking at,' Miller said. 'Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.' Asked by Hassan on Tuesday if she supported the provision, Noem said she did, adding that 'the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.' Hassan, who responded by saying that even Lincoln had obtained 'retroactive approval' from Congress, then asked Noem if she would follow a court order overturning a theoretical suspension of habeas corpus, or if she would follow Trump's decision. Noem said she was 'following all court orders ... as is the president,' prompting Hassan to say 'that is obviously not true for anybody who reads the news.' John Blume, a professor at Cornell Law School, said Noem's response to Hassan was either evidence that she 'fundamentally misunderstands habeas corpus' or 'was giving an answer she knew was wrong to appease the president.' Should the administration argue that the constitutional provision should be suspended due to what Trump officials have characterized as an 'invasion' by migrants, Blume said he felt such a position would be 'very unlikely to fly' with the U.S. Supreme Court. Could the Trump administration do it? It can try. Miller suggested that the U.S. is facing an 'invasion' of migrants. That term was used deliberately, though any effort to suspend habeas corpus would spark legal challenges questioning whether the country was in fact facing an invasion, let alone one that presented extraordinary threats to public safety. Advertisement Federal judges have so far been skeptical of the Trump administration's past efforts to use extraordinary powers to make deportations easier, and that could make suspending habeas corpus even tougher. Trump argued in March that the United States was facing an 'invasion' of Venezuelan gang members and evoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority he has tried to use to speed up mass deportations. His administration acted to swiftly deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua to a notorious prison in El Salvador, leading to a series of legal fights. Federal courts around the country, including in New York, Colorado, Texas and Pennsylvania, have since blocked the administration's uses of the Alien Enemies Act for many reasons, including by raising questions about whether the country is truly facing an invasion. If courts are already skeptical, how could habeas corpus be suspended? Miller, who has been fiercely critical of judges ruling against the administration, advanced the argument that the judicial branch may not get to decide. 'Congress passed a body of law known as the Immigration Nationality Act which stripped Article III courts, that's the judicial branch, of jurisdiction over immigration cases,' he said earlier this month. That statute was approved by Congress in 1952 and there were important amendments in 1996 and 2005. Legal scholars note that it does contain language that could funnel certain cases to immigration courts, which are overseen by the executive branch. Still, most appeals in those cases would largely be handled by the judicial branch, and they could run into the same issues as Trump's attempts to use the Alien Enemies Act. The U.S. system of government is divided into three branches: executive (the president), legislative (Congress) and judicial (the courts). Advertisement Have other administrations tried this? Technically not since Pearl Harbor, though habeas corpus has been at the center of some major legal challenges more recently than that. Republican President George W. Bush did not move to suspend habeas corpus after the Sept. 11 attacks, but his administration subsequently sent detainees to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drawing lawsuits from advocates who argued the administration was violating it and other legal constitutional protections. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo detainees had a constitutional right to habeas corpus, allowing them to challenge their detention before a judge. That led to some detainees being released. Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
Hindustan Times
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Donald Trump team mulls suspending habeas corpus to speed deportations; What is it?
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller says President Donald Trump is looking for ways to expand its legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally. To achieve that, he says the administration is 'actively looking at' suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government. Such a move would be aimed at migrants as part of the Republican president's broader crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border. 'The Constitution is clear, and that of course is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' Miller told reporters outside the White House on Friday. 'So, I would say that's an option we're actively looking at," Miller said. 'Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.' The Latin term means 'that you have the body." Federal courts use a writ of habeas corpus to bring a prisoner before a neutral judge to determine if imprisonment is legal. Habeas corpus was included in the Constitution as an import from English common law. Parliament enacted the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which was meant to ensure that the king released prisoners when the law did not justify confining them. The Constitution's Suspension Clause, the second clause of Section 9 of Article I, states that habeas corpus 'shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.' Yes. The United States has suspended habeas corpus under four distinct circumstances during its history. Those usually involved authorization from Congress, something that would be nearly impossible today — even at Trump's urging — given the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate. President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus multiple times amid the Civil War, beginning in 1861 to detain suspected spies and Confederate sympathizers. He ignored a ruling from Roger Taney, who was the Supreme Court chief justice but was acting in the case as a circuit judge. Congress then authorized suspending it in 1863, which allowed Lincoln to do so again. Congress acted similarly under President Ulysses S. Grant, suspending habeas corpus in parts of South Carolina under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, it was meant to counter violence and intimidation of groups opposing Reconstruction in the South. Habeas corpus was suspended in two provinces of the Philippines in 1905, when it was a U.S. territory and authorities were worried about the threat of an insurrection, and in Hawaii after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, but before it became a state in 1959. Writing before becoming a Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett co-authored a piece stating that the Suspension Clause 'does not specify which branch of government has the authority to suspend the privilege of the writ, but most agree that only Congress can do it.' It can try. Miller suggested that the U.S. is facing 'an invasion' of migrants. That term was used deliberately, though any effort to suspend habeas corpus would spark legal challenges questioning whether the country was facing an invasion, let alone presenting extraordinary threats to public safety. Federal judges have so far been skeptical of the Trump administration's past efforts to use extraordinary powers to make deportations easier, and that could make suspending habeas corpus even tougher. Trump argued in March that the U.S. was facing an 'invasion' of Venezuelan gang members and evoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority he has tried to use to speed up mass deportations. His administration acted to swiftly deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua to a notorious prison in El Salvador, leading to a series of legal fights. Federal courts around the country, including in New York, Colorado, Texas and Pennsylvania, have since blocked the administration's uses of the Alien Enemies Act for many reasons, including amid questions about whether the country is truly facing an invasion. Miller, who has been fiercely critical of judges ruling against the administration, advanced the argument that the judicial branch may not get to decide. 'Congress passed a body of law known as the Immigration Nationality Act which stripped Article III courts, that's the judicial branch, of jurisdiction over immigration cases,' he said Friday. That statute was approved by Congress in 1952 and there were important amendments in 1996 and 2005. Legal scholars note that it does contain language that could funnel certain cases to immigration courts, which are overseen by the executive branch. Still, most appeals in those cases would largely be handled by the judicial branch, and they could run into the same issues as Trump's attempts to use the Alien Enemies Act. Technically not since Pearl Harbor, though habeas corpus has been at the center of some major legal challenges more recently than that. Republican President George W. Bush did not move to suspend habeas corpus after the Sept. 11 attacks, but his administration subsequently sent detainees to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drawing lawsuits from advocates who argued the administration was violating it and other legal constitutional protections. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that Guantanamo detainees had a constitutional right to habeas corpus, allowing them to challenge their detention before a judge. That led to some detainees being released from U.S. custody.
Japan Today
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Trump team mulls suspending constitutional right of habeas corpus to speed deportations
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters outside the White House, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) By WILL WEISSERT White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller says President Donald Trump is looking for ways to expand its legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally. To achieve that, he says the administration is 'actively looking at' suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government. Such a move would be aimed at migrants as part of the Republican president's broader crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border. 'The Constitution is clear, and that of course is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' Miller told reporters outside the White House on Friday. 'So, I would say that's an option we're actively looking at," Miller said. 'Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.' The Latin term means 'that you have the body." Federal courts use a writ of habeas corpus to bring a prisoner before a neutral judge to determine if imprisonment is legal. Habeas corpus was included in the Constitution as an import from English common law. Parliament enacted the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which was meant to ensure that the king released prisoners when the law did not justify confining them. The Constitution's Suspension Clause, the second clause of Section 9 of Article I, states that habeas corpus 'shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.' Yes. The United States has suspended habeas corpus under four distinct circumstances during its history. Those usually involved authorization from Congress, something that would be nearly impossible today — even at Trump's urging — given the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate. President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus multiple times amid the Civil War, beginning in 1861 to detain suspected spies and Confederate sympathizers. He ignored a ruling from Roger Taney, who was the Supreme Court chief justice but was acting in the case as a circuit judge. Congress then authorized suspending it in 1863, which allowed Lincoln to do so again. Congress acted similarly under President Ulysses S. Grant, suspending habeas corpus in parts of South Carolina under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, it was meant to counter violence and intimidation of groups opposing Reconstruction in the South. Habeas corpus was suspended in two provinces of the Philippines in 1905, when it was a U.S. territory and authorities were worried about the threat of an insurrection, and in Hawaii after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, but before it became a state in 1959. Writing before becoming a Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett co-authored a piece stating that the Suspension Clause 'does not specify which branch of government has the authority to suspend the privilege of the writ, but most agree that only Congress can do it.' It can try. Miller suggested that the U.S. is facing 'an invasion' of migrants. That term was used deliberately, though any effort to suspend habeas corpus would spark legal challenges questioning whether the country was facing an invasion, let alone presenting extraordinary threats to public safety. Federal judges have so far been skeptical of the Trump administration's past efforts to use extraordinary powers to make deportations easier, and that could make suspending habeas corpus even tougher. Trump argued in March that the U.S. was facing an 'invasion' of Venezuelan gang members and evoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority he has tried to use to speed up mass deportations. His administration acted to swiftly deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua to a notorious prison in El Salvador, leading to a series of legal fights. Federal courts around the country, including in New York, Colorado, Texas and Pennsylvania, have since blocked the administration's uses of the Alien Enemies Act for many reasons, including amid questions about whether the country is truly facing an invasion. Miller, who has been fiercely critical of judges ruling against the administration, advanced the argument that the judicial branch may not get to decide. 'Congress passed a body of law known as the Immigration Nationality Act which stripped Article III courts, that's the judicial branch, of jurisdiction over immigration cases,' he said Friday. That statute was approved by Congress in 1952 and there were important amendments in 1996 and 2005. Legal scholars note that it does contain language that could funnel certain cases to immigration courts, which are overseen by the executive branch. Still, most appeals in those cases would largely be handled by the judicial branch, and they could run into the same issues as Trump's attempts to use the Alien Enemies Act. Technically not since Pearl Harbor, though habeas corpus has been at the center of some major legal challenges more recently than that. Republican President George W. Bush did not move to suspend habeas corpus after the Sept. 11 attacks, but his administration subsequently sent detainees to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drawing lawsuits from advocates who argued the administration was violating it and other legal constitutional protections. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that Guantanamo detainees had a constitutional right to habeas corpus, allowing them to challenge their detention before a judge. That led to some detainees being released from U.S. custody. Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
