The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to use the 1798 wartime Alien Enemy Act to deport Venezuelan migrants suspected of gang membership, ending a temporary stay on deportations ordered by a federal district judge.
But the court also ruled that the administration must give Venezuelans it considers gang members the opportunity to legally challenge any deportation orders.
He also did not express his opinion on President Donald Trump's use of the law.
The decision comes after martial law was used last week to send more than 130 suspected members of the Tre de Aragua gang to El Salvador, where the US covered the cost of holding them in a notorious prison.
The Trump administration claims the gang has become an invading force.
Venezuelans deported under the law had no way to challenge the orders, and lawyers for many of them say there is no basis to believe they were gang members.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt called it an “important victory” that people should now be given the right to challenge deportation orders.
The Trump administration welcomed the decision, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying that “an activist judge in Washington, D.C., has no authority to seize control of President Trump's foreign policy authority.”
– What is the Foreign Enemies Act?
In 1798, as the United States prepared for a potential war with France, Congress passed a series of laws expanding the powers of the federal government. The Alien Enemies Act was created to give the president broad powers to imprison and deport non-citizens during wartime.
Since then, the law has been applied only three times: during the War of 1812 and the two World Wars.
It became part of the rationale for the mass internment of people of German, Italian, and especially Japanese descent during World War II. An estimated 120,000 people of Japanese descent, including U.S. citizens, were imprisoned.
– Can the United States apply martial law when the country is not at war?
For years, Mr Trump and his allies have claimed that the United States is facing an “invasion” of people entering the country illegally.
The number of arrests at the US-Mexico border has exceeded two million per year for two consecutive years.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
