President Trump said it was “a bad and dangerous day for America” on Friday after the Supreme Court temporarily halted his administration’s expedited deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
“The Supreme Court has just ruled that the worst murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even those who are mentally insane, who came into our Country illegally, are not allowed to be forced out without going through a long, protracted, and expensive Legal Process, one that will take, possibly, many years for each person, and one that will allow these people to commit many crimes before they even see the inside of a Courthouse,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“The result of this decision will let more CRIMINALS pour into our Country, doing great harm to our cherished American public,” he added. “It will also encourage other criminals to illegally enter our Country, wreaking havoc and bedlam wherever they go.”
The court ruled 7-2 in an emergency decision to block authorities from removing migrants under the Alien Enemies Act as a legal challenge proceeds. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas were the only dissenting votes. Trump thanked both of them by name “for attempting to protect our Country,” in his Friday post.
Trump invoked the 18th century wartime law as grounds for removing migrants linked to gangs that he has declared terrorist organizations carrying out a “large-scale invasion” of the country.
In the unsigned majority opinion Friday, the justices took aim at the Trump administration for giving short notice before sending migrants to a prison in El Salvador, but the High Court didn’t examine the broader issue of whether the law can be used when the country isn’t at war and instead directed lower courts to act “expeditiously” on challenges to the merits of its use.
Since returning to the White House, the Supreme Court has drawn the ire of Trump and his allies over its orders. Still, federal district judges have been met with harsher critiques, including calls for impeachment and partisanship accusations from the president.
