The Supreme Court of the United States allowed the government of Donald Trump to continue deporting immigrants based on an old law – the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), with the condition that immigrants have a chance to argue their cases in court.
Under this law, the Trump administration sent more than 200 immigrants to El Salvador, in an agreement with the government of that country, which agreed to send them to one of the most criticized prisons in the world known for its human rights violations.
Despite American authorities claiming that all of the more than 200 deportees sent to El Salvador on March 15 were members of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), the invocation of the AEA allowed for the swift removal of these individuals, without a court hearing. The judges stated on Monday (7) that this cannot happen going forward.
Critically, even the majority today agrees, and the Federal Government now admits, that individuals subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act have the right to proper notice and judicial review before they can be removed,” wrote the four dissenting judges on Monday.
President Trump promised to remove millions of undocumented immigrants as part of his mass deportation policy. Critics argue that the actions of the current administration could lead to the unfair deportation of individuals without due process or a fair chance to present their cases.
Such was the case, according to his lawyers, of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal resident protected from deportation by a court order from 2019 who has lived in the U.S. since 2011. He is not part of a gang, and the government admitted that there was an administrative error in his deportation.
What the Supreme Court’s Decision Means
The Supreme Court justices’ decision that detainees must be alerted about their situation and have an “opportunity” to present their case to a judge before being deported from the U.S. will drastically slow the pace at which immigrants can be deported, should they all be allowed to contest their detention and removal through habeas corpus petitions.
However, all of this is temporary. The Supreme Court made an emergency decision while it hears and studies arguments about the case.
Source: Newsweek