KTAF NEWS

The US Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to continue to use a rarely-invoked wartime powers law to carry out rapid mass deportations of alleged gang members for now.

A lower court order on 15 March had temporarily blocked the administration’s summary deportations under the law meant to protect the US during wartime.

Trump has said that immigrants allegedly belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were “conducting irregular warfare” against the US and that he would deport them under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.

While siding with the administration, the top court’s majority said that migrants subject to deportation must be given “an opportunity to challenge their removal”.

“The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs,” the justices wrote in the unsigned 5-4 ruling on Monday.

“The only question is which court will resolve that challenge,” they wrote.

Monday’s ruling said the challenge, brought by five migrants, was raised improperly in a Washington DC court and not in Texas, where they are confined.

Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s liberal justices in dissenting with the majority ruling.

At least 137 people have been deported by the Trump administration under the Alien Enemies Act, a move criticised by rights groups.

The act grants the US president sweeping powers to order the detention and deportation of natives or citizens of an “enemy” nation without following the usual processes.

It was passed as part of a series of laws in 1798 when the US believed it would enter a war with France.