The US Supreme Court early on Saturday paused the Donald Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan men in immigration custody after their lawyers claimed they were at imminent risk of removal without the judicial review previously mandated by the justices.
“The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,” the justices said in a brief, unsigned, issued early on Saturday morning.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented from the decision, issued at about 12.55am local time.
The dispute centres on dozens of Venezuelans held at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed urgent requests on Friday in multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, urging immediate action after reporting that some of the men had already been loaded onto buses and were told they were to be deported.
The ACLU said the rapid developments were not affording the men a realistic opportunity to contest their removal as the Supreme Court had required.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
