April 7 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision Monday allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Araragua gang to El Salvador based on the 1798 Allies Enemies Act.
But the justices ruled that the government must give deportees “reasonable time” to challenge their removal in court in the United States before being deported.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on March 28 to lift a lower court order.
The 25-page unsigned opinion vacated a decision by the U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia on March 24 that blocked use the wartime law with little or no due process. It was a temporary restraining order by the judge appointed by George H.W. Bush. On March 26, the District Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in favor of Boasberg restraining order.
The Supreme Court majority was Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Conservative Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberals Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson against the opinion.
Writing a concurring opinion was Cavanaugh with dissenting opinions by Sotomayor and Jackson. Barett questioned whether habeas claims should be only way for people to challenge their deportations under the act.
Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were nominated by Donald Trump during his first term as president.
“The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself. A GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Sotomayor blasted the government’s conduct.
“That a majority of this court now rewards the government for its behavior with discretionary equitable relief is indefensible,” she wrote. “We, as a nation and a court of law, should be better than this.”
The five plaintiffs are suspected gang members but were not on the deportation flights. They remain in custody in Texas and appeared before a judge.
“Regardless of whether the detainees formally request release from confinement, because their claims for relief ”necessarily imply the invalidity’ of their confinement and removal under the AEA, their claims fall within the “core” of the writ of habeas corpus and thus must be brought in habeas,” the high court ruled.
The opinion added: “the order and percuriam confirm that the detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal. The only question is which court will resolve that challenge. For the reasons set forth, that venue lies in the district of confinement.”
A three-member appeals court heard arguments for one hour on the same day as Brosbger issued his order to halt flights. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush and Judge Patricia Millett, an appointee of President Barack Obama, ruled in favor of continuing Boasberg’s restraining order while Justin Walker, appointed by Donald Trump in his first term, dissented.
Boasberg said use of the Alien Enemies Act “implicates a host of complicated legal issues” but didn’t decide whether the law was properly invoked.
“Federal courts are equipped to adjudicate that question when individuals threatened with detention and removal challenge their designation as such,” he ruled. “Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge.”
Under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, the Justice Administration believes it has the authority because they are a “hybrid criminal state” invading the United States though it has been only invoked in times of declared war against other countries. They were described as the “worst of the worst.”
There were 228 deportations on two flights to El Salvador on March 15, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on social media.
Boasberg ordered the government to turn the planes around in flight but lawyers contend he had no authority to do that.
Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello none of the several hundred deported to El Savador’s maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center belong to the gang.
U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texa, last week filed impeachment articles against Boasberg. According to the U.S. Constitution, removal is for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Despite the judge’s order, the Justice Department announced plans to deport three other alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to Chile under the 1798 act. DOJ described Gamez Finol, Miguel Oyola Jimenez and Edgar Javier Benitez Rubio as “alien enemies” and the “illegally entered the United States after allegedy committing horrific crimes in Chile.”
