Donald Trump is running up against multiple challenges to his deportation efforts. In the early hours of this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency order to temporarily stop any deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members stating, “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.” It was issued so early because Venezuelans allegedly from the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang were reportedly already loaded onto buses from a prison in Anson, Texas presumably to be taken to an airport for deportation. Attorneys for the Venezuelans said that without this court order, potentially hundreds of people “may be removed to a possible life sentence in El Salvador with no real opportunity to contest their designation or removal,” according to the Washington Post.
On March 15 President Trump invoked the rarely-used 1798 Alien Enemies Act to target Venezuelan members of the TdA gang, but was quickly blocked by Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg. The judge objected to the use of the 1798 law for deportations, concerned that people were being deported without even a court hearing or any due process. He ordered three planes carrying 261 prisoners to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison to return but the order was ignored. On April 16 Judge Boasberg launched a criminal contempt inquiry into Trump administration officials for willfully violating his court order, according to the Washington Post.