Reuters
[ Source: Reuters ]
The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members under a rarely used wartime law, but the government urged the justices to lift their order.
The court issued the decision after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union asked it to intervene on an emergency basis, saying dozens of Venezuelan migrants faced imminent deportation without the judicial review the justices previously ordered.
“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 justices said earlier in a brief, unsigned decision.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented from the decision, issued around 12:55 a.m. (0455 GMT).
The Trump administration filed a response on Saturday afternoon urging the justices, once they review the matter further, to formally reject the ACLU’s request on the migrants’ behalf.
The White House responded that President Donald Trump would stay the course in his immigration crackdown but gave no immediate indication that the administration would defy the Supreme Court, appearing for now to avert a potential constitutional crisis between coequal branches of government.
Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.
Advertisement
