Supreme Court blocks Trump from deporting migrants under 1798 wartime law

The United States Supreme Court has ordered Donald Trump’s administration not to deport a group of at least 30 Venezuelan immigrants currently being held at the Bluebonnet detention center in Texas. Authorities had planned to transfer them to El Salvador using a law from 1798 intended for wartime — the Alien Enemies Act — to imprison them in Nayib Bukele’s high-security prison. With this decision, published early Saturday morning, a waiting period is now in effect until a lower court, specifically the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, issues a ruling.

“There is before the Court an application on behalf of a putative class of detainees seeking an injunction against their removal under the Alien Enemies Act. The matter is currently pending before the Fifth Circuit. Upon action by the Fifth Circuit, the Solicitor General is invited to file a response to the application before this Court as soon as possible. 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 decision states.

The ruling notes that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — both extremely conservative — voted against the decision. Alito will publish a dissent explaining his disagreement. The remaining seven justices — four conservatives and three progressives — supported the decision.

On Friday, two federal judges refused to intervene after the immigrants’ lawyers launched a desperate legal campaign to stop their deportation. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has not yet ruled on the matter. One of the judges acknowledged the case raised legitimate concerns but said he could not rule on it after the Supreme Court recently determined that deportation orders could only be issued by judges in the jurisdictions where the immigrants are located.

Trump is using a law intended for wartime to carry out expedited deportations. He accuses the immigrants of being members of armed gangs but has not proven it in court nor offered detainees legal safeguards. The administration mistakenly deported a Salvadoran migrant who was legally in the U.S., and rather than attempting to bring him back, it has tried to tarnish his image.

The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times in U.S. history, most recently during World War II to detain Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration argued the law gives them power to swiftly remove immigrants identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.

In a recent ruling, a divided Supreme Court allowed Trump, in a 5–4 vote, to continue using the law but did not rule on its merits. That decision did affirm that immigrants must have a chance to challenge their deportation before being removed from the country, and that they must be given a “reasonable time” to access the courts.

The majority opinion stated that: “For all the rhetoric of the dissents, today’s order and per curiam confirm that the detainees subject to removal orders under the Alien Enemies Act are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal.”

In their dissenting opinion, the four female justices argued that the law used to justify these deportations only gives the president the power to detain and remove foreign nationals from a “hostile nation or government” when “there is a declared war” with that country or when a “foreign nation” threatens an “invasion or predatory incursion” into U.S. territory.

In their dissenting opinion, the four Supreme Court justices argued: “The Act grants the President power to detain and remove foreign citizens of a ‘hostile nation or government’ when ‘there is a declared war’ with such nation or when a ‘foreign nation’ threatens ‘invasion or predatory incursion’ against the territory of the United States.”

“Before today, U. S. Presidents have invoked the Alien Enemies Act only three times, each in the context of an ongoing war: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. That changed on March 14, 2025, when President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to address an alleged ‘Invasion of the United States by Tren De Aragua,’ a criminal organization based in Venezuela. [...] There is, of course, no ongoing war between the United States and Venezuela,” the justices emphasized, highlighting the clear illegality of using the law for these deportations

The justices warned of the authoritarian drift implied in applying a law without safeguards, flouting the letter of the law, and relying on a government that claims once deported and imprisoned, individuals cannot be brought back even if the government admits a mistake.

The dissenting opinion argued: “The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this Nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise.”

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