The fate of dozens of Venezuelan migrants, held under a centuries-old law designed for wartime enemies, now hangs in the balance after the Supreme Court intervened in a midnight ruling—only for the Trump administration to immediately challenge it.
These detainees, imprisoned at a North Texas detention center, face deportation to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century statute that grants the government sweeping powers to remove non-citizens with virtually no due process.
The high court’s emergency order, issued just hours after the ACLU filed a last-ditch appeal, temporarily blocks their removal.
“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,” said an unsigned order from the seven-member majority.
The administration is already pushing back, with Solicitor General John Sower calling the decision “premature” and urging the justices to narrow its scope.
In a blistering dissent, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas condemned the ruling as “unprecedented,” arguing it grants “legally questionable relief” to individuals the government deems threats.
The Trump administration insists it is acting within the law. “We’re using the statutes on the books to remove significant public safety and national security threats,” the president’s border czar told ABC News.
Yet critics argue the government is branding these migrants as gang members without evidence—or even a hearing.
“Multiple people have been erroneously tagged,” said the ACLU’s lead attorney. “Once they’re sent to a Salvadoran prison, they may never get out.”
Among those already caught in this legal dragnet is Kilmar Abrego García, a Venezuelan man the administration admits was wrongfully deported to El Salvador under the same law.
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who visited Abrego García in prison, warned of the broader consequences.
“If we take the rule of law away from him,” he said, “we jeopardize it for everyone.”
The Supreme Court did not provide a detailed explanation in the order early Saturday, as is typical, but the court previously said deportations could proceed only after those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.
The Alien Enemies Act, last invoked during World War II, was never intended for mass deportations in peacetime.
The Trump administration has wielded it aggressively since March, bypassing courts to expel migrants to a country where many have no ties—and where human rights groups report rampant abuse in prisons.
As the legal battle escalates, the detainees in Texas remain in limbo. The Supreme Court’s intervention offers a fleeting reprieve, but the administration’s appeal signals a relentless push to remove them.
The question now is whether the justices will stand by their temporary order—or allow a law meant for foreign adversaries to be used against asylum seekers, with no chance to plead their case.
For these Venezuelans, the stakes could not be higher. If the administration prevails, they may vanish into a foreign prison system, their claims unheard, their faces forgotten.
If the court holds firm, it may force a reckoning over how far the government can go in the name of security—and who, in America, is truly protected by the law.