The Conversation: Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador sparks legal questions likely to reach the Supreme Court

Jennifer Selin in The Conversation (“Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador sparks legal questions likely to reach the Supreme Court“) considers the case involving the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans without due process.  A federal appeals court upheld a temporary block on the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

The court was skeptical of Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to justify the removals. The act, passed in 1798, gives the president the power to detain and remove people from the United States in times of war.

On March 28, Trump asked the Supreme Court for permission to resume deporting Venezuelans to El Salvador.

KJ