Supreme Court gives Trump 2 deportation wins
The court ruled that the Trump administration could continue to deport Venezuelan migrants
What happened
The Supreme Court Monday intervened in two immigration cases, handing partial wins to President Donald Trump. In one case, Chief Justice John Roberts paused a federal judge's order that the Trump administration immediately retrieve a migrant erroneously deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. In the other, the court ruled 5-4 that the administration could resume deportations of Venezuelans to the same Salvadoran prison using Trump's claimed wartime powers under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, with new limits.
Who said what
The divided Supreme Court handed Trump a "victory," but in a "narrow procedural ruling" in which all nine justices agreed the Venezuelan alleged gang members had the right to challenge their deportation in court, The New York Times said. "The split among the court was over where — and how — that should happen," and the five conservatives in the majority ruled it had to happen in Texas, where the Venezuelans are being detained, not the Washington, D.C., court that blocked the deportations.
"Courts in Texas may not be especially receptive" to the detainees' habeas corpus petitions, Politico said. Still, the Supreme Court's ruling "appears to deal a setback to Trump's attempt to swiftly deport" the alleged gang members and gave them the right to challenge his novel "interpretation" of the Alien Enemies Act to cover gang activity. Trump and the ACLU, which challenged the deportations, both claimed victory Monday night.
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Roberts issued his "administrative stay" in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia before a midnight deadline set by a federal judge in Maryland for the Trump administration to "facilitate and effectuate" his return. Hours earlier, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected the administration's request to lift the order. The government "has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process," two of the judges wrote.
What next?
Roberts ordered both sides in the Abrego Garcia case to submit their filings Wednesday, a "truncated timeline" that "indicates the Supreme Court is likely to act quickly," The Washington Post said.
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