BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court Stops Trump’s Controversial Deportation Of Migrants
In a late-night decision on Saturday, the United States Supreme Court issued a temporary halt on President Donald Trump’s controversial effort to deport Venezuelan migrants under a rarely used 18th-century law.
The emergency order, which came amid heightened political tensions, blocked the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a statute most notably employed during World War II to detain Japanese-American citizens.
Notably, two of the court’s most conservative justices dissented from the ruling.
This development pauses Trump’s initiative to expel migrants without standard legal proceedings. Under the now-blocked directive, dozens of Venezuelan nationals were scheduled to be deported as early as Friday, without access to hearings or opportunities to challenge their removal.
In its ruling, the court declared that “the government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order.”
Trump has defended the swift expulsions and the relocation of some individuals to a high-security prison in El Salvador by stating the policy targets violent Venezuelan gangs, which have been designated as terrorist organisations by the U.S. government.
However, critics argue that the president’s actions represent a broader constitutional overreach and an alarming power grab.
The deployment of the Alien Enemies Act, in particular, has drawn scrutiny as part of Trump’s escalating campaign against law firms, elite universities like Harvard, and prominent independent media outlets.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which led the legal challenge against the administration’s deportation plans, expressed relief at the court’s decision.
“These men were in imminent danger of spending their lives in a horrific foreign prison without ever having had a chance to go to court,” attorney Lee Gelernt said.
In response to the ruling, the Trump administration on Saturday submitted a motion urging the Supreme Court to lift the block and allow continued use of the Alien Enemies Act for deporting individuals it has labelled as terrorists.
Furthermore, the government maintained that, should the court continue to restrict use of that specific law, deportations could still proceed under alternative legislative frameworks.
