The US Supreme Court has barred the Trump administration from quickly resuming deportations of Venezuelans from a north Texas detention facility.
The justices acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
President Donald Trump quickly voiced his displeasure. “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
The high court action is the latest in a string of judicial setbacks for the Trump administration’s effort to speed deportations of people in the country illegally. The president and his supporters have complained about having to provide due process for people they contend didn’t follow U.S. immigration laws.
The court had already called a temporary halt to the deportations, in a middle-of-the-night order issued last month. Officials seemed “poised to carry out removals imminently,” the court noted Friday.
The high court case centers on the opportunity people must have to contest their removal from the United States — without determining whether Trump’s invocation of the law was appropriate.
National Guard asked to assist in immigration roundups
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has asked for 20,000 National Guard troops to assist with immigration roundups across the country, and the Pentagon is reviewing the unusual request, according to a US official.
It asked for the troops to help carry out President Donald Trump’s “mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens,” department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.
Unlike the troops deployed at the southern border, these National Guard units would come from the states and be used to assist in deportation operations in the interior of the country.
It was unclear why the request was made to the Defence Department and not to the states. The US official spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.
Trump has been carrying out a wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigration, issuing a series of executive orders designed to stop what he has called the “invasion” of the United States.
The US already has as many as 10,000 troops under state and federal orders along the US-Mexico border, including some who are now empowered to detain migrants they encounter along a newly militarised narrow strip of land adjacent to the border.
So far, these troops have largely been limited to providing airlift, bolstering the wall, surveillance and administrative support to free up border agents for arrests or detentions.
Along the newly militarised zone, troops have put up warning signs and accompanied border agents but left the detention of migrants crossing the border to other agencies.
