Supreme Court Temporarily Halts Use of Alien Enemies Act to Expel People

The Supreme Court ordered an emergency temporary halt to Donald Trump’s application of the Alien Enemies Act to abruptly rendition immigrants to El Salvador.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

The Court acted on a request by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Venezuelan immigrants being gathered in the Bluebonnet Detention center at Anson, Texas in apparent preparation for another mass rendition, probably to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. Some had reportedly already been loaded onto buses.

With flights appearing to be imminent, the ACLU filed in at least two federal District Courts (D.C. and the North District of Texas), the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, warning that the stakes were life sentences without due process. District Court declined on the grounds that last week’s Supreme Court ruling appeared to leave it powerless.

Federal District Court Judge James Hendrix had only 42 minutes to respond before ACLU escalated to the Court of Appeals, which unanimously denied the appeal on the grounds that it was premature. ACLU then sought relief from the Supreme Court.

Early the next morning the Supreme Court ruled that “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.”

The ruling is limited to immigrants detained in the Northern District of Texas who is targeted for removal using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Separate cases in lower courts have temporarily blocked such expulsions from the Southern District of New York and the Southern District of Texas.

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