Supreme Court blocks new deportations of Venezuelans under Alien Enemies Act

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Supreme Court issued an early Saturday morning order directing the Trump administration not to deport alleged Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members "until further order of this court."

Justice Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

"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 brief order read.

The Venezuelans currently being held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas were being deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which President Trump invoked, until the American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency appeal.

Earlier in April, the Supreme Court said that deportations could proceed only if those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given "a reasonable time" to contest their pending removals.

“We are deeply relieved that the Court has temporarily blocked the removals. These individuals were in imminent danger of spending the rest of their lives in a brutal Salvadoran prison without ever having had any due process," ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said in an email.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said in an order on Wednesday that he found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for deportation flights to El Salvador after he ordered a halt to the departure of deportation flights carrying more than 200 people last month.

Boasberg said the administration could avoid this contempt finding or “purge” itself of contempt, if they return to U.S. custody those who were sent to El Salvador in violation of his order so that they “might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability.”

“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it," Boasberg wrote.

During a meeting with Trump at the White House earlier this week, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said he would not release Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he was deported despite having claimed asylum and holding protective status from a 2019 immigration judge.

The Trump administration maintains he is an MS-13 gang member, a claim his family and attorneys dispute.

"The question is preposterous, how can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States," President Bukele said.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.