President Donald Trump has responded on social media following Friday’s unsigned ruling by the Supreme Court blocking his administration from deporting Venezuelans in the country illegally who have been identified as members of a gang deemed by him to be a terrorist organization.
The high court ruled 7-2 against Trump’s invoking of the Alien Enemies Act, a centuries-old wartime statute invoked to expedite the deportation of certain illegal immigrants. The administration had argued that the law provided authority for the swift removal of individuals considered national security threats, including Venezuelan nationals allegedly linked to violent criminal organizations.
However, the Court blocked the administration’s attempt to use the law for such purposes and remanded the case to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals based in New Orleans for further review. The ruling also means the Venezuelans can remain in the country illegally for the time being.
Trump addressed the ruling on his Truth Social account.
“The Supreme Court has just ruled that the worst murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even those who are mentally insane, who came into our Country illegally, are not allowed to be forced out without going through a long, protracted, and expensive Legal Process, one that will take, possibly, many years for each person, and one that will allow these people to commit many crimes before they even see the inside of a Courthouse,” he wrote.
“The result of this decision will let more CRIMINALS pour into our Country, doing great harm to our cherished American public. It will also encourage other criminals to illegally enter our Country, wreaking havoc and bedlam wherever they go,” he added.
“The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do. Sleepy Joe Biden allowed MILLIONS of Criminal Aliens to come into our Country without any ‘PROCESS’ but, in order to get them out of our Country, we have to go through a long and extended PROCESS. In any event, thank you to Justice Alito and Justice Thomas for attempting to protect our Country. This is a bad and dangerous day for America!” Trump added.
In its ruling, a majority of justices contended that the Trump administration failed to provide the detainees with sufficient time or proper resources to contest their deportations.
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“Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster,” the ruling read, despite dissents from Justices Thomas and Alito.
“But it is not optimal for this Court, far removed from the circumstances on the ground, to determine in the first instance the precise process necessary to satisfy the Constitution in this case. We remand the case to the Fifth Circuit for that purpose,” the ruling said.
At the same time, the Supreme Court rejected the ACLU’s request to bypass the lower courts and take up the question of whether former President Donald Trump can invoke the rarely used Alien Enemies Act during peacetime. The case will now proceed through the lower court system, where it will be considered alongside several related lawsuits filed by the left-wing civil rights group.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a short separate concurring opinion in which he emphasized that the court’s opinion today “simply ensures that the Judiciary can decide whether these Venezuelan detainees may be lawfully removed under the Alien Enemies Act before they are in fact removed.”
Alito pushed back against the majority, accusing the court of exceeding its proper authority in even addressing Trump’s use of the act.
“From the Court’s order, it is not entirely clear whether the Court has silently decided issues that go beyond the question of interim relief. (I certainly hope that it has not.) But if it has done so, today’s order is doubly extraordinary,” he wrote.