Trump's Trials - Supreme Court temporarily halts new deportations under Alien Enemies Act

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of immigrants in Texas under the Alien Enemies Act in an uncharacteristic middle-of-the-night order on Saturday.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Tattoo. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. An unpredictable, transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Each episode we bring you NPR's coverage of President Trump acting on his own terms. And that means sometimes doing things that no American president has tried before. NPR is covering it all in stories

like the one you are about to hear right after this. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Steve Inskeep. The US Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan immigrants using the Alien Enemies Act. Also Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, had more to say about a trip to El Salvador to meet with Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was illegally deported

to a facility there. NPR's Jasmine Garst covers immigration, joins us now to bring us up to date. So Jasmine, you've been covering that case. Where does it stand? Yeah, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia. And since then, a federal judge, Paula Zinis, has ordered a two-week inquiry into what steps the Trump administration has taken. That's going to start this week. Now, MPR has been sitting on other presiding hearings presided by Judge

Zinis, and I can tell you she sounds quite frustrated. Now the administration doubled down over the weekend insisting Abrego Garcia is a gang member and posting on social media that they are not bringing him back. What Van Hollen and many immigration advocates are arguing is this is not about whether or not Abrego Garcia is a gang member. It's about due process in the US which he didn't get. So that's one case. There was also another group of Venezuelan migrants on the verge of being deported but the Supreme Court stepped in to delay that. So what can you tell us about

that one? Well the Trump administration has been invoking the Alien Enemies Act and their argument is it applies to immigrants who are members of gangs like MS-13 or Tren de Aragua. So last Thursday, lawyers learned immigration officials were handing out notices to Venezuelan migrants informing them that they were being deported under the Alien Enemies Act. I spoke to a lawyer who heard from her client, Karine Brown is an attorney with the Legal Aid Society. My client called me crying, informed me that they just attempted to deport him and to think

that he can just be sent to a Salvadorian prison and just rot in there for the rest of his life. It's really unconscionable. Brown says her client was instructed to sign a paper in English, which he doesn't speak, and told he was being deported immediately. Now, Jasmine, didn't the Supreme Court already rule on the Alien Enemies Act? Yeah, so earlier this month the Supreme Court did rule that the Trump administration can use the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants accused of gang activity, but they also ruled

that the migrants have to be given enough time to defend themselves. And lawyers and advocates are saying 24 hours is not enough. In a statement to NPR, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said they are complying with the Supreme Court's ruling. Okay, so if that's the case, then why did the Supreme Court step in on Saturday? The ACLU asked the court to do so, and it rapidly did. Around 2 a.m. on Saturday, they ordered a pause. For now, the Trump administration cannot deport these migrants using the Alien Enemies Act.

All right. That's NPR's Jasmine Gartz. Thank you very much for this update. Thank you. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks as always to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without

sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.