The U.S. Court of Justice stops deportations from Venezuelans from Texas

The Supreme Court of the United States has suspended the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members by the US government based on a law from the 18th century. The government will be instructed to show “no members of the alleged group of prisoners” until a further order of this court, the court order issued on Saturday.

US President Donald Trump had appointed himself to the “Alien Enemies Act” (AEA) from 1798 last month to have Venezuelan migrants brought to a high-security prison in El Salvador. Trump accuses the migrant to belong to the criminal Latin American gang tren de Aragua.

The arrangement for the break was carried out after human rights lawyers had previously made an urgent application to stop the deportation of migrants held in a facility in the US state of Texas.

The lawyers of several Venezuelans, which have already been deported, had previously stated that their clients were not members of Tren de Aragua and had not committed any crimes. They were particularly targeted by their tattoos.

The Alien Enemies Act allows US presidents to arrest or deport citizens of an enemy nation. It was used three times in US history-in the British-American War of 1812, in the First World War and especially in World War II.