Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to resume quick deportations of
Venezuelans under 18th-century law
[May 17, 2025]
By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday barred the Trump
administration from quickly resuming deportations of Venezuelans under
an 18th-century wartime law enacted when the nation was just a few years
old.
Over two dissenting votes, the justices acted on an emergency appeal
from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang
members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible
for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of
1798.
The court indefinitely extended the prohibition on deportations from a
north Texas detention facility under the alien enemies law. The case
will now go back to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which
declined to intervene in April.
President Donald Trump quickly voiced his displeasure. “THE SUPREME
COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he posted on
his Truth Social platform.
The high court action is the latest in a string of judicial setbacks for
the Trump administration’s effort to speed deportations of people in the
country illegally. The president and his supporters have complained
about having to provide due process for people they contend didn’t
follow U.S. immigration laws.
The court had already called a temporary halt to the deportations, in a
middle-of-the-night order issued last month. Officials seemed “poised to
carry out removals imminently,” the court noted Friday.
Several cases related to the old deportation law are in courts
The case is among several making their way through the courts over
Trump’s proclamation in March calling the Tren de Aragua gang a foreign
terrorist organization and invoking the 1798 law to deport people.
The high court case centers on the opportunity people must have to
contest their removal from the United States — without determining
whether Trump's invocation of the law was appropriate.
“We recognize the significance of the Government’s national security
interests as well as the necessity that such interests be pursued in a
manner consistent with the Constitution,” the justices said in an
unsigned opinion.
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The Supreme Court at sunset in Washington, Feb. 13, 2016. (AP
Photo/Jon Elswick, File)
At least three federal judges have said Trump was improperly using
the AEA to speed deportations of people the administration says are
Venezuelan gang members. On Tuesday, a judge in Pennsylvania signed
off on the use of the law.
The legal process for this issue is a patchwork one
The court-by-court approach to deportations under the AEA flows from
another Supreme Court order that took a case away from a judge in
Washington, D.C., and ruled detainees seeking to challenge their
deportations must do so where they are held.
In April, the justices said that people must be given “reasonable
time” to file a challenge. On Friday, the court said 24 hours is not
enough time but has not otherwise spelled out how long it meant. The
administration has said 12 hours would be sufficient. U.S. District
Judge Stephanie Haines ordered immigration officials to give people
21 days in her opinion, in which she otherwise said deportations
could legally take place under the AEA.
The Supreme Court on Friday also made clear that it was not blocking
other ways the government may deport people.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, with Alito
complaining that his colleagues had departed from their usual
practices and seemingly decided issues without an appeals court
weighing in. “But if it has done so, today’s order is doubly
extraordinary,” Alito wrote.
In a separate opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he agreed with
the majority but would have preferred the nation's highest court to
jump in now definitively, rather than return the case to an appeals
court. “The circumstances,” Kavanaugh wrote, “call for a prompt and
final resolution.”
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