Trump, Venezuelans & SCOTUS

Legal battles are intensifying around the joint Trump-Bukele crackdown that saw over 200 Venezuelans transferred to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison. On Saturday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unusual weekend ruling to halt further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), with only conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting.

This comes after a tangled judicial back-and-forth: James Boasberg, a federal judge in Washington, had initially blocked the deportations (which were conducted anyways), but the Court lifted that ruling on April 7 (5-4 decision), citing jurisdictional grounds—saying Texas, not D.C., should handle such challenges. SCOTUS also ruled that detainees should be given due process to challenge their removal. And last week, Boasberg raised the stakes, suggesting Trump officials could face contempt charges for violating his earlier order.

ICE has since admitted it wrongly deported at least one person—Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego García—despite ongoing legal reviews (the Trump administration still deems him an MS-13 criminal despite it supposedly was an ‘administrative error’). Trump has deflected responsibility, insisting he can’t blame Bukele from holding who they’ve labeled as Tren de Aragua terrorists, while Bukele says he “doesn’t have the power” to return individuals like Abrego García (who is now being held outside CECOT). Now, Bukele is proposing to swap the extradition of alleged TDA gang members with the release of political prisoners in Venezuela.