Supreme Court Halts Trump’s Deportation Of Venezuelan Gang Members
Charlie Kirk Staff
05/16/2025

The U.S. Supreme Court has once again halted deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, siding Friday with a group of Venezuelans who challenged the Trump administration’s use of the 18th-century law to remove them from the country, report Reuters
The court’s ruling, which focused on due process and not the legality of the Alien Enemies Act itself, stated that the illegal immigrants had not been given adequate time or information to fight their deportation orders. The case will now return to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans for further consideration.
“Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster. But it is not optimal for this Court, far removed from the circumstances on the ground, to determine in the first instance the precise process necessary to satisfy the Constitution in this case. We remand the case to the Fifth Circuit for that purpose,” the court wrote in its opinion.
The majority of justices agreed that the detainees must be given more time to respond to removal notices. “To be clear, we decide today only that the detainees are entitled to more notice than was given on April 18,” the opinion added.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the ruling.
Last month, the high court had lifted a lower court’s stay that was blocking deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. However, it also stressed that deportees must be given proper notice. Shortly after that, the justices paused deportations again when the administration tried to proceed with removals in northern Texas.
Friday’s decision comes just one day after the court heard arguments in a separate but related case on birthright citizenship and the authority of federal judges to block executive orders nationwide. The birthright case is one of six emergency appeals now pending, including disputes over temporary protected status for Venezuelans, migrant parole programs, executive agency dismissals, access to Social Security data, and federal employee downsizing.
The Alien Enemies Act, which dates back to 1798, has been cited by President Donald Trump as a tool to accelerate the removal of illegal immigrants. The law was historically used during wartime, but Trump’s administration has relied on it to bypass standard immigration court procedures.
After the ruling, Trump took to Truth Social to criticize the decision. “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he wrote.
In a follow-up post, the president said, “The Supreme Court has just ruled that the worst murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even those who are mentally insane, who came into our Country illegally, are not allowed to be forced out without going through a long, protracted, and expensive Legal Process, one that will take, possibly, many years for each person, and one that will allow these people to commit many crimes before they even see the inside of a Courthouse.”
“The result of this decision will let more CRIMINALS pour into our Country, doing great harm to our cherished American public. It will also encourage other criminals to illegally enter our Country, wreaking havoc and bedlam wherever they go. The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do. Sleepy Joe Biden allowed MILLIONS of Criminal Aliens to come into our Country without any ‘PROCESS’ but, in order to get them out of our Country, we have to go through a long and extended PROCESS. In any event, thank you to Justice Alito and Justice Thomas for attempting to protect our Country. This is a bad and dangerous day for America!” Trump wrote.