President Donald Trump Friday petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate an order barring his administration from using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador.
The petition requests an "immediate administrative stay" and was filed under the name of Trump in his official capacity as president and the administration.
The move comes after a split three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Thursday refused to lift a March 15 order from the panel's chief judge, James Boasberg, to temporarily prohibit deportations under the 18th-century wartime act.
The administration, using the law for the first time since World War II, deported hundreds of alleged Venezuela gang members, declaring the Tren de Aragua gang as an invading force.
Boasberg's order included returning planeloads of the immigrants to the United States, which did not happen.
His order was based on a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas.
The use of the Alien Enemies Act allows Trump's administration to deport alleged gang members without the requirement of holding hearings, with the standoff between the government and federal judges part of a growing test of the judicial branch's ability to enforce limits on the president's powers, reports Bloomberg Law.
If the Supreme Court grants Trump's request, it will open a window for the administration to send people out of the country without a judge first hearing cases to determine if they are members of a gang.
Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, in filing the petition, said the case "cries out for this court's intervention."
The filing, however, does not include accusations that the administration defied Boasberg's March 15 order to turn the planes carrying the immigrants around and to return to the United States.
The administration is arguing against providing information to Boasberg about the flights, claiming that state secrets would be put at risk.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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