The ruling says the Trump administration can invoke the law, but deportees have the right to challenge their removal.
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump can continue to deport Venezuelan migrants under an 18th-century wartime law, but ordered that they be granted “reasonable time” to appear before a judge.
In a 5-4 ruling, the US top court on Monday overturned an order from a lower federal court that sought to temporarily block summary deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
The Trump administration has invoked the law, last used during World War II, to deport alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang by claiming they are “conducting irregular warfare” in the US.
The administration deported hundreds of people to El Salvador after Trump took office in January, but flights carrying deportees were halted by a federal judge on March 15.
While the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could use the wartime law to carry out deportations, it said deportees still had a right to due process and were “entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal”.
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In a dissenting opinion, the court’s three liberal judges were joined by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who concurred with parts of their argument.
Both Trump and the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented five Venezuelans in the case, cast the ruling as a victory.
In a separate ruling on Monday, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a lower court’s ruling ordering the Trump administration to return a Salvadoran man to the US after he was erroneously deported.
The lower court’s ruling had called for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, where he was mistakenly deported on March 15, by midnight on Monday.
The Supreme Court’s temporary stay gives its nine justices more time to consider the case.
Abrego Garcia, a documented US resident married to an American citizen, was granted protection from deportation in a 2019 judgement that said he would face persecution from criminal gangs if he was sent back to his home country.
US government lawyers have alleged that Abrego Garcia is a member of the international gang MS-13, a claim his lawyers have denied.
The Trump administration designated MS-13 a “terrorist organisation” in January.