Supreme Court Lifts Injunction Barring Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act; Brennan Center Reacts

In a 5–4 decision Monday, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s order blocking the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan nationals under the Alien Enemies Act. The ruling accepted the administration’s claim that the only recourse for people targeted under the Act is to file habeas petitions in the courts.  Instead of filing a suit to challenge the lawfulness of the policy, individual Venezuelans will be forced to file suits challenging the lawfulness of their own deportations.

Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, had the following reaction:

“This ruling could effectively strip thousands of people of their constitutional right to due process. The majority opinion claims that individual Venezuelans targeted under the law will be able to challenge their own deportations. But the Court left ample room for gamesmanship. The administration will likely continue to whisk immigrants away to El Salvador’s notorious prison before they have an opportunity to get relief from a court. That means innocent people will continue to be caught up and deported.”

Background  

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is the last remaining part of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts. It lets the president detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation during wartime, without a hearing and based only on their country of birth or citizenship. The president may invoke the Alien Enemies Act in times of “declared war” or when a foreign government threatens or undertakes an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” against U.S. territory. It was last used during World War II to justify the detention and expulsion of Japanese, German, and Italian foreign nationals based on their ancestry.

President Trump issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act on March 15 to detain and deport Venezuelan members of the criminal gang Tren de Aragua. More than one hundred people were summarily deported under this authority and sent to a prison in El Salvador notorious for human rights abuses. It subsequently emerged that 75% of the deported individuals had no criminal record whatsoever, and the Trump administration has acknowledged that at least one person was deported as a result of an “administrative error.” A federal judge issued a temporary injunction halting deportations under the law, and the Trump administration on March 28 asked the Supreme Court to freeze the judge’s order.

This release is available online here.