While President Trump’s new tariff policies have caused major disturbances in global markets, which rightfully give anxiety to many around the world, his immigration policy remains very popular among the American people. There, he had another battle to fight, with Federal District judges routinely blocking some of his orders.
The most famous case of them all took place in March. President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to send around 200 Venezuelan gang members who had been residing in the US illegally to the famous maximum security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, as per an agreement with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador.
However, the American NGOs ACLU and Democracy Forward sued the government on behalf of the gang members, arguing that the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act was unconstitutional. This resulted in Judge James Boasberg in the US District Court for the District of Columbia issuing a temporary restraining order to halt the deportation operation. When informed that the flights that carried the illegal migrants had already taken off, he even ordered the plane to return to the US. However, the Trump administration argued that the plane had already left US airspace, thus the judge no longer had jurisdiction over it.
So the plane arrived in El Salvador, and the illegal migrants and gang members were processed in the maximum security prison.
As expected, the case went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which issued its ruling on Monday, 7 April. In a 5–4 decision, they found the federal judge based in Washington, DC had no power in halting the deportations. Instead, the legal challenge should have been filed in the federal district that includes Texas, they argued, where the detainees were located before deportation. The unsigned opinion also stressed that this ruling does not adjudicate the constitutionality of invoking the Alien Enemies Act against illegal migrants connected to organized foreign gangs.
However, this is still a major win for Trump, as Texas is one of the most conservative states in the Union, while the District of Columbia is one of the most liberal places in the country.
Accordingly, President Trump lauded the decision in a post on Truth Social, writing:
‘The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself.’
The Alien Enemies Act was passed in 1798 by a Congress controlled by the Federalist Party and signed into law by President John Adams. Originally, it was targeting French citizens within the United States during the so-called ‘Quasi-War’ the US waged against France on the Caribbean Sea. Even at the time, it was considered controversial, but it still managed to remain on the books for 227 years.
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