Supreme Court Tires of Trump Administration’s Hide and Seek Deportation Policies?
https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/24a1007.html
The United States Government, acting on the orders of President Trump, has been playing a dangerous hide and seek game with the nation’s courts, trying to snatch and deport immigrants without any semblance of due process. Due Process is fundamental to the US Constitution and the entire system of American justice. It requires notice and an opportunity for a hearing before an impartial decision maker (judge or hearing officer). The government must present evidence that meets the standard of proof – clear and compelling evidence. The defendant has the right to hear and contest the government’s evidence and to present evidence on their own behalf.
The Trump Administration is trying to deport Venezuelan migrants living in the US under the provisions of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 without any semblance of due process. It claims the US is at war with a gang of dangerous Venezuelan criminals. The Act has been invoked only three times previously – during the War of 1812, the First World War and the Second World War. Section 1 of the Act requires that in order to be invoked, the US must be in a “declared war between the United States and any sovereign nation”. https://web.archive.org/web/20161220094337/http://library.uwb.edu/static/USimmigration/1%20stat%20577.pdf Needless to say, we are not in a declared war with Venezuela. Furthermore, Congress, not the President, has the Constitutional power to declare war.
The Courts have been steadily telling the President that he must comply with Constitutional due process protections before deporting immigrants residing in the US. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/19/supreme-court-trump-immigration-ruling-00299717 The Administration has been ducking and dodging court orders.
The Administration is claiming, for example, that it cannot return a Maryland resident wrongfully deported to El Salvador’s infamous prison, because the El Salvadoran officials they are paying to detain him won’t voluntarily release him. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20z63gr8mzo and https://www.axios.com/2025/04/17/supreme-court-perfectly-clear-on-returning-deported-maryland-man-appeals-court The Administration is claiming the planes were already in the air and outside of US airspace and out of their control when they were ordered by Judge Boasberg to return the deportees to the US for due process proceedings. https://apnews.com/article/trump-deportees-el-salvador-contempt-boasberg-da282511ac6f5c8dd19af620995ca440 and https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/appeals-court-temporarily-halts-contempt-inquiry-deportation-flights/story?id=120965096 Similarly, they claimed they simply didn’t hear the order not to deport a Brown University doctor to Lebanon. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/19/supreme-court-trump-immigration-ruling-00299717
This flouting of court orders has not escaped the notice of the Supreme Court which ruled 7-2 at midnight on an ACLU request to stop the most recent deportations of Venezuelans to El Salvador without the Trump Administration offering them any semblance of due process. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/supreme-court-blocks-deportations-donald-trump-alito-dissent.html and https://abcnews.go.com/US/attorneys-venezuelans-warn-clients-imminent-risk-deportation-aea/story?id=120950962 They are destroying their credibility and those of their attorneys with the judges and justices who hear their cases, with the notable exception of diehards such as Justices Alito and Thomas.
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