The Supreme Court on Monday, April 7th, allowed the Trump administration to proceed with deportations of Venezuelan nationals accused of gang affiliation under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime-era statute not invoked since World War II. The decision permits the removals to resume but requires the government to provide those detained with notice and an opportunity to challenge their deportation in court.
In a 5-4 ruling, the Court vacated an order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocking the removals. The original lawsuit, filed by five Venezuelan migrants held in Texas, challenged the administration’s use of the 1798 law to deport individuals alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang designated by the administration as a terrorist organization.
The majority concluded that while the government could invoke the Alien Enemies Act, individuals facing removal must be granted due process. “AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act,” the Court wrote in its unsigned opinion. “The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs.”
Although the Court allowed the deportation process to proceed, it limited legal challenges to Texas rather than to Washington, D.C., where Boasberg had been overseeing the case.
The decision drew strong criticism from the liberal justices, who accused the administration of attempting to avoid judicial review. Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that the ruling would make it more difficult for migrants to challenge their deportations and warned of potential due process violations. “We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this,” she wrote in dissent.
The Trump administration announced earlier this year that it had identified the Tren de Aragua as an invading force aligned with the Venezuelan government, allowing it to apply the Alien Enemies Act. Immigration authorities began deporting migrants shortly afterward, with some flights landing in El Salvador and Honduras before legal orders were issued.
