International-News

Venezuelan migrants, Supreme Court blocks deportation sought by Trump

Suspended transfer of alleged criminal gang members: ‘They must have access to due process’

The US Supreme Court has enjoined President Donald Trump’s administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants currently detained in Texas on suspicion of belonging to an alleged criminal gang.

In an interlocutory order, the court neither granted nor denied the request of the detainees’ lawyers, but froze the deportation order. ‘The government is enjoined from deporting any member of the alleged class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court,’ the text reads.

Two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented from the majority’s decision.

Yesterday, a bus drove to the Bluebonnet detention centre in Anson, where the men involved are being held, ready for transfer. The deportation was to take place under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law still in force.

The men’s lawyers, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), asked the court to ‘preserve the status quo’ and prevent their clients from being deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador before they have access to due process in the US.

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