US President Donald Trump has faced unexpected resistance from the generally loyal Supreme Court. He issued a decision to suspend deportations against Venezuelans suspected of having criminal ties. Now the prosecutor’s office will have to prove that the illegal immigrants being deported to El Salvador are indeed connected with the criminal world. At the same time, there is a threat that the Supreme Court may not accept other elements of Trump’s policy, characterized by his opponents as lawlessness.
The Supreme Court has suspended the deportations of Venezuelans in Texas until further notice. To carry out the deportation, Trump used the law of 1798, which was used against the settlers who remained loyal to the British crown.
Thus, the highest court accepted the complaint of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Now migrants can be expelled only if they have the opportunity to appeal the decision, and an adequate time period should be allocated for the appeal.
“These men were in imminent danger of spending their entire lives in a terrible foreign prison without ever being able to go to court. We are glad that the Supreme Court did not allow the administration to send them to prison, as it did with others last month,” ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt told CBS News on Saturday.
However, this does not mean that Venezuelans will not be deported. They will have the opportunity to defend themselves in court, but this makes them less likely to be sent to El Salvador, but it remains quite high. Although it is not a fact that the remaining Venezuelans were going to be deported to El Salvador, where the largest prison in the Western Hemisphere is located. The White House accuses the deported Venezuelans of having links with the Tren de Aragua gang.
Another thing is more noteworthy: previously, the Supreme Court sided with Trump almost always. Six of the nine judges are considered conservatives, and this determines that the members of the court as a whole do not share the agenda of the Democratic Party. And here the scale of Themis has tilted in favor of migrants. It is worth noting that, in general, the application of the law of 1798 also ran into considerable resistance, since it was carried out by only a minimal majority in the Supreme Court. That is, even then there were elements of disagreement among the conservative majority.
However, although the judges partially granted the ACLU’s application, they still did not provide any explanations about their decision. Judges appointed by Trump himself, among others, do not want to put themselves in direct opposition.
“The Government is instructed not to remove any of the alleged detainees from the United States until further notice from this court,” was the judges’ brief decision.
The president himself has not yet allowed harsh statements towards the Supreme Court, even though he is critical of legal institutions. In a statement, the White House said it would use all legal means to expel illegal immigrants. There is a fairly high degree of solidarity in American society specifically on this issue: it is on the migration issue that Trump’s policy has the greatest support.Â
