Supreme Court orders Trump administration not to deport Venezuelans for now

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court in the early hours of Saturday told the Trump administration not to take any action to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members currently based in Texas while litigation continues.

The court did not grant or deny an application filed by lawyers for the detainees, but effectively hit pause on the case.

“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 brief order said. It noted that an appeals court has yet to act on a similar request.

Two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, disagreed with the decision, the order noted.

On Friday afternoon, at least one charter bus rolled up to the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, a town about 200 miles west of Dallas, where the men are being held.

The Trump administration is seeking to deport the men under a wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act. There are major questions about whether the government has the authority to apply the law to gang members outside of a war situation.

The plaintiffs “ask only that this court preserve the status quo so that proposed class members will not be sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador before the American judicial system can afford them due process,” their lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in the Supreme Court filing.