The U.S. Supreme Court over the weekend hit pause on the Trump administration’s deportations of illegal immigrant gang members.
The Trump administration has used the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to detain and deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
The order means the administration cannot deport illegal immigrant detainees being held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas.
“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,” said the Supreme Court’s 7-2 order issued on Saturday.
The detainees are seeking an injunction against their removal in a case currently pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The detainments have been challenged by liberal politicians and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the administration’s use of the law.
The Trump administration defended its actions in a statement, saying it remains focused on removing violent illegal immigrants.
“President Trump promised the American people he would use all lawful measures to remove the threat of terrorist illegal aliens, like members of TdA, from our homeland,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “We are confident we will ultimately prevail against the onslaught of meritless litigation brought by radical activists who care more about the rights of these terrorist aliens than those of the American people.”
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority’s order, saying the court “hastily and prematurely granted unprecedented emergency relief.”
“In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court is-sued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order,” the dissent said.
