Supreme Court blocks Trump effort to deport Venezuelan migrants under Alien Enemies Act

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of an appeal by a group of Venezuelan migrants who asked the high court to halt their deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. 

The ruling, similar to others it has made in the past on the matter, revolved around the alleged illegal immigrants not having enough time to reasonably file a challenge to their deportations.

President Donald Trump has been using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to try and speed up the deportation processes of illegal immigrants, but the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling presents another blow to those attempts after the court ruled against the Trump administration in their attempts to remove men already in immigration custody in a northern region of Texas.

“Under these circumstances, 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. But it is not optimal for this Court, far removed from the circumstances on the ground, to determine in the first instance the precise process necessary to satisfy the Constitution in this case. We remand the case to the Fifth Circuit for that purpose,” the opinion from the court reads. 

The court did not rule on whether the AEA was lawful but rather send the matter back to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“To be clear, we decide today only that the detainees are entitled to more notice than was given on April 18,” the Supreme Court’s ruling said.