The DOJ petitioned the United States Supreme Court on Friday to intervene in a decision blocking the Trump administration from using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged criminal illegal immigrants.
On March 15, President Donald Trump used the 1798 law to deport the alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador quickly.
“Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States,” the executive order says.
“Pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, consistent with applicable law, apprehend, restrain, secure, and remove every Alien Enemy described in section 1 of this proclamation,” the executive order adds. “The Secretary of Homeland Security retains discretion to apprehend and remove any Alien Enemy under any separate authority.”
The Alien Enemies Act allows the president to deport and detain noncitizens in times of war from hostile countries.
Earlier in March, the Trump administration deported nearly 250 alleged members of TdA to El Salvador.
After this, a lower court blocked the Trump administration from conducting these flights, and this week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the lower court’s decision.
Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris asked the Supreme Court for “an immediate administrative stay of the district court’s order pending the Court’s consideration of this application.”
A paper written by Rachel Bayefsky, a Virginia Law School associate professor, described an administrative stay as a pause of “legal proceedings until the court can rule on a
party’s request for expedited relief.”
Harris said in the application to vacate the appeal’s court decision that this case “presents fundamental questions” about who conducts “sensitive national-security-related operations” in America.
“The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President. The republic cannot afford a different choice,” she wrote.
Harris added that Trump’s judgment to remove TdA members “was imperative” to prevent the gang from hurting people in American detention facilities and “continuing to infiltrate U.S. communities.”
“The United States thus has an overwhelming interest in removing these foreign actors whom the President has identified as engaging in ‘irregular warfare’ and ‘hostile actions against the United States,’” she wrote.
Harris said the district court’s decision “rebuffed” Trump’s judgment on how to protect America “against foreign terrorist organizations and risk debilitating effects for delicate foreign negotiations.”
Harris said the Supreme Court “should vacate the district court’s orders.”
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at zschmidt1717@gmail.com. Follow Zachery on Twitter @zacheryschmidt2.
