19th April 2025 11:34:49 AM
3 mins readU.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt the deportation of a group of Venezuelan men accused of gang involvement.
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These men are currently detained in North Texas under a rarely used law from the 18th century. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against the government, arguing that the men have not been given a fair chance to challenge their deportation in court.
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Former President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law that allows the president to detain and deport citizens of countries considered enemies of the U.S. without following normal legal procedures. The Trump administration used this law to send the accused Venezuelans to a large prison in El Salvador, known for housing dangerous criminals.
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This law has only been used three times in U.S. history, all during wartime. The most recent use was during World War II, when many people of Japanese descent were imprisoned without trial and placed in internment camps.
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Since returning to office in January, Trump’s strict immigration approach has faced several legal challenges. He accused the Tren de Aragua gang—a criminal group from Venezuela—of trying to invade or commit violent acts on American soil.
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According to a senior official who spoke with CBS News, 261 Venezuelans had been deported to El Salvador by April 8. Of that number, 137 were removed under the Alien Enemies Act.
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On March 15, a lower court paused these deportations. Then on April 8, the Supreme Court ruled that while Trump could use the Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected gang members, those individuals must first be given the opportunity to contest their removal in court.
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The ACLU lawsuit argued that the Venezuelans held in Texas received their deportation notices in English—even though some, including one detainee, only spoke Spanish. The lawsuit added that the detainees were never told about their right to challenge the deportation in court.
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“Without this Court’s intervention, dozens or hundreds of proposed class members may be removed to a possible life sentence in El Salvador with no real opportunity to contest their designation or removal,” the suit stated.
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Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito disagreed with the decision and filed dissents on Saturday.
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During his second inauguration speech in January, Trump vowed to “eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil.”
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In one high-profile case, the government admitted it mistakenly deported Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national. Authorities claim he’s a member of the MS-13 gang, but his family and lawyer deny the accusation, and he has never been convicted of any crime.
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Although the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Ábrego García should be brought back to the U.S., the Trump administration insists he will “never” return to live in the country.
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Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen recently visited Ábrego García in El Salvador. He confirmed that Ábrego García had been moved from the Cecot mega-prison—known officially as the Terrorism Confinement Centre—to another facility.
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