Trump Administration Makes Damaging Admissions on Alien Enemies Act and Deportations
In recent days, the Trump Administration has made two damaging admissions that should hurt its already dubious positions in litigation over the Alien Enemies Act and illegal deportations of migrants to imprisonment in El Salvador.
Last week, Trump himself publicly admitted he “could” secure the return of illegally deported Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is currently imprisoned in El Salvador at the behest of the US government. That should put an end to the ongoing legal debate over how to apply the Supreme Court’s ruling that the administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return. Given that Abrego Garcia is only incarcerated by El Salvador because of an agreement under which the US is paying the Salvadoran government to do so, it was already obvious that Trump could easily secure his return, if he wanted to. But Trump’s admission is additional evidence on this point. And, given that the entire arrangement is an unconstitutional violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment (deportees are imprisoned without ever having any opportunity to defend themselves in court), there is no legitimate foreign policy interest in maintaining it, and therefore no reason for courts to defer to the executive. And what is true of Abrego Garcia is also true of dozens of others illegally deported to imprisonment in El Salvador. It is blatantly obvious that Trump could easily return them, and the administration has a legal and moral obligation do so.
Trump did later claim he could only return Abrego Garcia if the attorney general says its legal to do so. But there is no doubt that it’s legal to return a person whose deportation was itself illegal.
Meanwhile, a declassified US intelligence community memorandum concluded that, contrary to Trump Administration claims, the Tren de Aragua drug gang is not acting under the direction of the Venezuelan government and is not significantly responsible for the flow of Venezuelan migrants to the US. Reason writer Jacob Sullum has a helpful summary of the memo and its signi
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