Migrant Deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798!
Washington, Apr 7 (EFE).-
The US Supreme Court on Monday lifted a federal court order that had temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out summary deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a rarely invoked law historically reserved for times of war.
The Court also ruled that since the detained migrants are being held in Texas, legal challenges must be filed there and not in Washington, DC, where the original case was heard.
The ruling follows an emergency appeal by the Trump administration after the DC Circuit Court upheld a temporary injunction issued on Mar. 15 by Judge James Boasberg.
The administration argued that national security concerns made the case too urgent for lower courts to decide and asserted that immigration enforcement falls squarely under presidential authority.
Citing concerns about the presence of the transnational criminal group Tren de Aragua, which Trump claims has links to Venezuela’s Maduro government, the administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a law from the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, not used since World War II.
The statute allows the executive branch to deport nationals from hostile nations without a judicial hearing in times of war or declared national threat.
Despite the injunction issued by Judge Boasberg on Mar. 15, the Trump administration proceeded with the deportations on the same day.
According to EFE sources, three chartered planes departed from Texas, returning approximately 200 Venezuelan detainees to Latin America.
Many were transferred to El Salvador’s high-security prison CECOT, officially known as the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo. EFE
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