US Supreme Court halts deportation of Venezuelan migrants under Alien Enemies Act, cites due process concerns

In a rare and dramatic late-night intervention, the US Supreme Court on Saturday (April 19) temporarily halted President Donald Trump’s use of the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants without due process.

The emergency order, issued in two terse paragraphs, temporarily blocks the administration from expelling dozens of Venezuelan detainees under the 1798 law.

Notably, two of the Court’s most conservative justices dissented. The ruling came just hours before a planned mass deportation.

“The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order,” the court said.

ACLU: ‘They were in imminent danger’

The American Civil Liberties Union, which led the legal challenge, welcomed the ruling as a life-saving measure.

“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,” said Lee Gelernt, lead attorney for the ACLU. “We are relieved that the Supreme Court has not permitted the administration to whisk them away the way others were just last month.”

Trump’s use of obscure Llw sparks backlash

President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act last month to deport Venezuelan migrants, accusing them of links to violent gangs like Tren de Aragua, now designated terrorist organisations by the US government.

He has justified the summary expulsions and the use of El Salvador's notorious prisons by claiming it is part of a crackdown on “terrorists” and “foreign criminals.”

But critics say the administration is trampling over the Constitution in the process.

A law from another era

The Alien Enemies Act, signed into law in 1798, has been rarely used in modern history. Its most infamous application was during World War II, when it was used to detain Japanese-American citizens in internment camps.

Civil rights advocates say its current use mirrors that dark period.

‘Administrative error’

One of the most high-profile cases involves Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador without charges in what ICE later called an “administrative error.”

A court ruled that the administration must facilitate his return, but Trump has refused to comply. On Friday, the president posted an apparently doctored image of Abrego Garcia with MS-13 tattooed across his knuckles, doubling down on claims he is a gang member.

CECOT: ‘A hellhole’

Deported migrants are now held at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador — a mega-prison with capacity for 40,000 inmates. Described by human rights observers as inhumane, the prison forbids visits and houses detainees in windowless cells on metal bunks with no mattresses.