President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to clear the way for him to wield wartime powers for mass deportations.
Trump on Friday filed an emergency appeal against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s order halting his March 15 invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a wartime law—to fast-track the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants he claims are gang members.
The president and his Republican allies have grown increasingly frustrated as lower courts have thrown roadblocks in front of key parts of his agenda since the start of his second term.
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“This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country—the President, through Article II, or the judiciary,” Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris told the Supreme Court on Friday.
“The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President. The republic cannot afford a different choice.”
Although Boasberg ordered a halt to the deportations, which took place with little due process under the act, on March 15, dozens of people were still sent to a prison in El Salvador.
Boasberg, an Obama appointee, quickly became a target of Trump’s fury and his MAGA followers for issuing the order, blasting him as a “Radical Left Lunatic” and calling for his impeachment.
That led to a rare public rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that comment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
On Wednesday, an appeals court upheld Boasberg’s order 2-1, with Judge Karen L. Henderson arguing that the Alien Enemies Act applies only in wartime or in the event of an invasion by a foreign nation or government.
The law has been invoked just three times in U.S. history—during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.
The Trump administration claims the Venezuelan migrants are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated as a foreign terrorist organization in February, and that the group has “infiltrated” the U.S.
The Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority, has asked lawyers for the immigrants to file a response to Trump’s appeal by April 1.
