The Supreme Court has issued a ruling that will allow Trump to continue using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for deportations. However, the ruling also calls for individuals to be given due process to challenge deportation orders against them.
In a lower court, federal judge James Boasberg ruled to temporarily block the removal of immigrants the Trump administration claimed were alleged Venezuelan gang members. According to BBC, Boasberg argued that the use of the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority that allows a president to detain or deport natives and citizens from an “enemy nation,” needed further scrutiny.
On Monday, NBC News reported that the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to throw out Judge Boasberg’s decision. The ruling will allow deportations under the Alien Enemies Act to resume, but with due process.
“The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs,” the justices wrote in the unsigned decision on Monday, per BBC.
Civil rights advocates are relieved that the court ruled in favor of due process.
“The Supreme Court’s affirmation of due process is a powerful reminder that legal rights and protections must not be eroded. We must never forget that the Alien Enemies Act was used to justify the incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S. citizens and even children. We must be cautious as a country to not go down a dark path of repeating this historic atrocity,” Gisela Kusakawa, Executive Director of the Asian American Scholar Forum, said in a statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union brought the initial lawsuit challenging the removal of the immigrants Trump claimed were Venezuelan gang members. The organization was also encouraged by the Supreme Court’s statements on due process.
“We are disappointed that we will need to start the court process over again in a different venue but the critical point is that the Supreme Court said individuals must be given due process to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act,” lead ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement to US media.
However, several immigrant rights advocates told CNN that they are concerned that many people won’t receive due process. They pointed to uncertainty over how individuals will be notified about deportation orders and called out the complicated processes involved in challenging those orders.
“It’s hard enough for fluent English speakers to do this,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told CNN. “These are extremely significant barriers.”