The ACLU’s emergency application challenges Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants accused of being criminal gang members.
The Trump administration filed a response on April 19 to the Supreme Court order that temporarily blocked it from deporting a group of Venezuelan men accused of being gang members.
The order, which was issued just after midnight on Saturday, was in response to an April 18 emergency application from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which was suing on behalf of a group of Venezuelans facing deportation under the administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
“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 order states. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the decision.
The ACLU had asked the high court to intervene on an emergency basis, arguing that dozens of Venezuelan nationals could be quickly removed from the country without the judicial review the justices had previously ordered.
In its response on Saturday, filed by Department of Justice Solicitor General John Sauer, the Trump administration urged the justices to reject the ACLU’s request after reviewing it further.
“At a minimum, if the Court keeps its administrative stay in place, the government respectfully requests that the Court clarify that it is administratively staying removals only under the [Alien Enemies Act], and that its order does not preclude removal pursuant to any other immigration authorities,” Sauer wrote.
“Putative class members may be independently subject to removal under Title 8, including as members of a foreign terrorist organization or otherwise.”
The ACLU’s emergency application challenges President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants accused of being criminal gang members. The group is also seeking a temporary restraining order from the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia and a stay of removal order from the Fifth Circuit, its application said.
Trump signed a proclamation on March 14, officially designating the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang as a foreign terrorist organization, along with the Salvadoran MS-13 gang and several Mexican cartels.
The president invoked the Alien Enemies Act to authorize the “immediate apprehension, detention, and removal” of members of the group who are Venezuelan citizens aged 14 years or older and who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States.
The ACLU’s application says its clients are in “imminent and ongoing jeopardy of being removed from the United States without notice or an opportunity to be heard, in direct contravention of this Court’s order in Trump v. J.G.G.”
“Many individuals have already been loaded onto buses, presumably headed to the airport,” and are at risk of being sent to a prison in El Salvador, according to the application.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a statement on social media platform X after the Supreme Court’s ruling on Saturday.
“We are confident we will ultimately prevail against the onslaught of meritless litigation brought by radical activists who care more about the rights of these terrorist aliens than those of the American people,” Leavitt wrote.
Matthew Vadum contributed to this report.