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Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Supreme Court makes major ruling on deportation of Venezuelan migrants
The Supreme Court on Friday made a major ruling barring Donald Trump's attempt to deport members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under an 18th-century wartime law. All three of the justices appointed by Donald Trump during his first term sided with Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's three liberals, with only Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting. The justices acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The court indefinitely extended the prohibition on deportations from a north Texas detention facility under the alien enemies law. The case will now go back to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which declined to intervene in April. Trump - who has waged rhetorical war against lower courts throughout his second term - quickly voiced his anger at the court on Truth Social. 'THE SUPREME COURT WON´T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!' he posted on his Truth Social platform. Trump said he was trying to get rid of 'the worst murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even those who are mentally insane, who came into our Country illegally.' He complained that the court's ruling will force 'a long, protracted, and expensive Legal Process, one that will take, possibly, many years for each person, and one that will allow these people to commit many crimes before they even see the inside of a Courthouse.' The justices acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 'The result of this decision will let more CRIMINALS pour into our Country, doing great harm to our cherished American public,' he added. Trump then thanked Justices Alito and Thomas 'for attempting to protect our Country' before declaring it 'a bad and dangerous day for America!' The high court action is the latest in a string of judicial setbacks for the Trump administration's effort to speed deportations of people in the country illegally. The president and his supporters have complained about having to provide due process for people they contend didn't follow U.S. immigration laws. The court had already called a temporary halt to the deportations, in a middle-of-the-night order issued last month. Officials seemed 'poised to carry out removals imminently,' the court noted Friday. The case is among several making their way through the courts over Trump´s proclamation in March calling the Tren de Aragua gang a foreign terrorist organization and invoking the 1798 law to deport people. The high court case centers on the opportunity people must have to contest their removal from the United States - without determining whether Trump's invocation of the law was appropriate. 'We recognize the significance of the Government´s national security interests as well as the necessity that such interests be pursued in a manner consistent with the Constitution,' the justices said in an unsigned opinion. At least three federal judges have said Trump was improperly using the AEA to speed deportations of people the administration says are Venezuelan gang members. On Tuesday, however, a Trump-appointed judge in Pennsylvania signed off on the use of the law. Stephanie Haines, a Trump appointee, also said the administration hasn´t been giving enough notice to people facing removal under the AEA. She ordered the administration to provide at least 21 days notice - far longer than the 12 hours that some deportees have been given. 'This case poses significant issues that are deeply interwoven with the constitutional principles upon which this Nation´s government is founded,' Haines wrote. 'In approaching these issues, the Court begins by stressing the questions that it is not resolving at this time.' The ruling doesn't address whether the administration can remove people under other immigration laws, nor does it address whether Trump can invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport people who simply migrated to the U.S. and who aren't members of a foreign terrorist organization, Haines wrote. She also did not weigh in on whether people suspected of being members of other gangs could be removed under the act. But she did say the Act can be used to remove Venezuelan citizens who are at least 14 years old, who are in the U.S. without legal immigration status, and who are members of Tren de Aragua. 'Having done its job, the Court now leaves it to the Political Branches of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those individuals, to decide whether the laws and those executing them continue to reflect their will,' Haines wrote. The court-by-court approach to deportations under the AEA flows from another Supreme Court order that took a case away from a judge in Washington, D.C., and ruled detainees seeking to challenge their deportations must do so where they are held. In April, the justices said that people must be given 'reasonable time' to file a challenge. On Friday, the court said 24 hours is not enough time but has not otherwise spelled out how long it meant. The administration has said 12 hours would be sufficient. The Supreme Court on Friday also made clear that it was not blocking other ways the government may deport people. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, with Alito complaining that his colleagues had departed from their usual practices and seemingly decided issues without an appeals court weighing in. 'But if it has done so, today´s order is doubly extraordinary,' Alito wrote. In a separate opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he agreed with the majority but would have preferred the nation's highest court to jump in now definitively, rather than return the case to an appeals court. 'The circumstances,' Kavanaugh wrote, 'call for a prompt and final resolution.' Trump issued a proclamation in March claiming that Tren de Aragua was invading the U.S. He said he had special powers to deport immigrants, identified by his administration as gang members, without the usual court proceedings. After the proclamation, the administration began deporting people designated as Tren de Aragua members to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The proclamation and deportations sparked a flurry of lawsuits in multiple states - including the one that led to Haines' ruling Tuesday. That case was brought a Venezuelan national who says he fled to the U.S. with his wife and children in 2023 after facing extortion in his own country. He was arrested in February after a neighbor reported that he is a member of Tren de Aragua - a claim the man vehemently denies. The man is identified only by his initials in the lawsuit. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Haines initially approved the case as a class action, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from using the AEA to deport any migrants in her district. But she lifted that designation Tuesday, clearing the way for deportations to resume as long as the people being removed are given at least 21 days notice in English and Spanish as well as an 'opportunity to be heard' on any objections they might have. Many Tren de Aragua members were deported as part of the president's immigration crackdown and sent to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison. In November before Trump took office, it was revealed the Venezuelan super gang's territory covered half of America's population, posing challenges for law enforcement agencies across the US who are trying to combat the mob's wave of crime. The gang had spread its tentacles across Virginia, Washington DC, Montana and Wyoming, according to an internal Homeland Security department intelligence memo obtained by The New York Post. Officials warned that TdA's arrival in the US capital and nearby Virginia coincides with 'increases in migrant populations' in the area, the memo states. TdA was reportedly targeting DC because the city provides easy travel access to wealthy northern Virginian suburbs where gangsters are carrying out thefts, robberies and assaults. The mob's bloodthirsty members have also increased their 'violent tendencies' and has become more engaged with 'lower-level fraud and theft schemes' that allow them to send stolen funds 'back to South America as a means of financing additional criminal enterprises', according to the intelligence document. Homeland security officials warned that as the 'population of Venezuelan nationals continues to increase, the potential for violent TdA migrants is highly probable'.
News.com.au
16-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
US Supreme Court blocks Trump bid to resume Venezuelan deportations
The US Supreme Court on Friday blocked a bid by the Trump administration to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members using an obscure wartime law, saying they were not being given enough time to legally contest their removal. The 7-2 decision by the top court is another setback to President Donald Trump's attempts to swiftly expel alleged Tren de Aragua gang members using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA). Trump, who campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants, reacted angrily to the court order. "THE SUPREME COURT WON'T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!" he posted on Truth Social. Trump invoked the AEA, which was last used to round up Japanese-Americans during World War II, in March to deport a first group of alleged Tren de Aragua members to a notorious prison in El Salvador without due process. Attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said their clients were not Tren de Aragua members, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos. The conservative-majority Supreme Court intervened on April 19 to temporarily block further deportations of undocumented Venezuelan migrants, saying they must be afforded due process. In Friday's unsigned order, the court paused plans to deport another group of detainees held in Texas, saying they were not being given enough time to mount a meaningful legal challenge to their removal. "Notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster," the justices said. Conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. - 'More notice' - The justices also noted that a Salvadoran man had been deported to El Salvador "in error" along with the alleged Tren de Aragua members in March and the Trump administration has claimed "it is unable to provide for (his) return." The justices stressed they were not deciding whether Trump could legally use the AEA to deport undocumented migrants, and they ordered a lower court to "expeditiously" examine the question. "To be clear, we decide today only that the detainees are entitled to more notice than was given," they said. "We did not on April 19 -- and do not now -- address the underlying merits of the parties' claims regarding the legality of removals under the AEA. "We recognize the significance of the Government's national security interests as well as the necessity that such interests be pursued in a manner consistent with the Constitution," they said. Three federal district court judges have ruled that Trump's use of the AEA to carry out deportations was unconstitutional while one district court judge, a Trump appointee, decided that it was permissible. In invoking the AEA, Trump said Tren de Aragua was engaged in "hostile actions" and "threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States." Since taking office, Trump has sent troops to the Mexican border, imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada for allegedly not doing enough to stop illegal crossings, and designated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as terrorist groups.
Telegraph
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
First judge to allow Donald Trump to use wartime act to deport migrants
A judge in Pennsylvania has become the first in the country to allow Donald Trump to use a wartime act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members. Stephanie L Haines, who was nominated to the US district court by Mr Trump in 2019, said the 1798 Alien Enemies Act did not require a foreign invasion to be invoked, as other judges have ruled. But she ruled the Trump administration's use of the legislation was 'constitutionally deficient' and that migrants designated for deportation should be given 21 days' notice and a chance to appeal the decision in court. Her decision marks a rare judicial victory for the US president, as judges in New York, South Texas, West Texas and Colorado concluded his use of the act was unlawful. Mr Trump has attempted to use the Alien Enemies Act since March to deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang which he has labelled a foreign terrorist organisation. It has only been used three times in the past, and never during peacetime: the War of 1812, between Britain and the US, the First World War, and the Second World War. But Judge Haines ruled on Tuesday the act 'does not require an 'invasion or predatory incursion' to be 'perpetrated, attempted or threatened against the territory of the United States by the military of any foreign nation or government''. The law was also intended to protect the US from attacks by pirates and robbers, she said, adding: 'The court cannot help but ask: Is a Foreign Terrorist Organization like TdA not the modern equivalent of a pirate or robber?' Her decision opens the door to summary deportations in her district of western Pennsylvania, and may also bode well if the judicial fight over the act heads to the Supreme Court, which is dominated by conservative justices. When Mr Trump invoked the act in March, he declared the gang represented a de facto invasion of the US by Venezuela because of its links to its president, Nicolas Maduro.
Malay Mail
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Trump wins rare court victory to use 1798 law in fast-tracking Venezuelan deportations
WASHINGTON, May 14 — A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled on Tuesday that the United States can use the Alien Enemies Act to fast-track the deportation of accused Venezuelan gang members, in what appears to be the first court ruling that backs the Trump administration's interpretation of the 1798 law. Judge Stephanie Haines, of the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, ruled that President Donald Trump has authority to declare the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organisation and deport its members under the Alien Enemies Act, but she criticised the administration's practice of deporting people sometimes 'within a matter of hours.' Haines, appointed by Trump during his first term, ruled that the administration must give potential deportees at least 21 days' notice and the opportunity to challenge their removals, to avoid the possibility that people who are not gang members 'may be errantly removed from this country.' She made the ruling in court papers in the case of a Venezuelan man identified as A.S.R. Haines did not rule whether A.S.R. was a member of the gang, but she said people like him must be given more opportunity to challenge their deportations. Haines required the government to provide notice in Spanish and English, and to provide interpreters when necessary. Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who is representing A.S.R., said he would appeal. 'We strongly disagree with the Court's decision to allow the government to continue using this wartime authority during peacetime, and will appeal that aspect of the decision,' Gelernt said. Haines' ruling is contrary to other federal courts' decisions on the Trump administration's interpretation of the Alien Enemies Act, which the president invoked in March as legal justification for deporting hundreds of men whom his administration accused of being Tren de Aragua members. Federal judges in New York, Colorado and Texas have ruled against Trump's use of the law to deport Venezuelans. Haines, in her ruling, noted that her district has jurisdiction over the petition filed by A.S.R., even though he was transferred from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, on 15 April to an ICE detention centre in Texas, despite a temporary restraining order issued that day barring his transfer from the Western District of Pennsylvania. The Trump administration has deported alleged gang members to a prison in El Salvador under an arrangement in which the United States is paying the Central American nation US$6 million. It is part of Trump's hardline approach toward immigration. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. — Reuters
Reuters
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
US judge says Trump can use Alien Enemies Act for deportations
May 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled the United States can use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to fast-track the deportation of accused Venezuelan gang members in the state's western district, but must give them at least 21 days' notice and the opportunity to challenge their removals. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines ruled that President Donald Trump has authority to declare Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization and deport its members under the Alien Enemies Act. She made the ruling in court papers in the case of a Venezuelan man known as A.S.R. The judge did not rule whether A.S.R. was a member of the gang, and said that people like him must be given the chance to challenge their deportations. Haines, appointed by Trump during his first term, appears to be the first judge to back his administration's interpretation of the Alien Enemies Act, which the president invoked in March as legal justification for deporting hundreds of men his administration accused of being Tren de Aragua members. Judges in New York, Colorado and Texas have ruled against Trump's use of the law to deport Venezuelans. Haines said that the government must provide notice in Spanish and English, and provide interpreters when necessary. The Trump administration has deported alleged gang members to a prison in El Salvador under an arrangement in which the United States is paying the Central American nation $6 million. It is part of Trump's hardline approach toward immigration. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
