Supreme Court Halts Latest Wave of Alien Enemies Act Deportations, for Now

The Supreme Court early Saturday halted the administration’s ability to use the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport migrants to El Salvador who are being detained in portions of Texas, for now.

The emergency order temporarily blocks the deportations until the high court resolves the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) emergency appeal, which was filed hours earlier over concerns that more deportation flights were imminent.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two of the court’s leading conservatives, dissented.

The ACLU simultaneously asked several courts to immediately intervene Friday, warning that the Venezuelan migrants could otherwise be given life sentences in a notorious Salvadoran megaprison without the opportunity for judicial review.

“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 Supreme Court’s order reads.

The class extends to any migrant detained in the Northern District of Texas who is being removed under the 18th century Alien Enemies Act. It does not apply elsewhere, though judges overseeing separate cases have temporarily blocked deportations for those detained in the Southern District of New York, the District of Colorado and the Southern District of Texas.

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