WASHINGTON, April 23 (Bernama-dpa) – United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was “entitled” to deport migrants without a trial following an order by the US Supreme Court at the weekend temporarily blocking the deportation of dozens of Venezuelans, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
The US government accuses the Venezuelans in question of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organisation and was due to deport them using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a controversial and previously rarely used law that allows the president to deport foreigners during war or an invasion.
The Supreme Court on Saturday directed the government “not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court” following an urgent application by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues the individuals have not been afforded due process.
On Tuesday, Trump said he was hoping to “get cooperation from the courts” to deport the “thousands of people that are ready to go out,” claiming that “you can’t have a trial for all of these people.”
The US president repeated baseless claims that countries, including Venezuela, are “emptying their prisons into the United States.”
“We are getting some very bad people, killers, murderers, drug dealers, really bad people, the mentally ill, the mentally insane,” he said in response to a reporter’s question following the swearing-in ceremony for the new US Securities and Exchange Commission chair, Paul Atkins, at the Oval Office.
“We’re getting them out, and a judge can’t say no, you have to have a trial … the trial is gonna take two years … we’re going to have a very dangerous country if we’re not allowed to do what we’re entitled to do.
Trump has pursued a hard line on immigration since taking office in January.
Last month, US authorities deported more than 200 Venezuelans and dozens of Salvadorans to the notorious CECOT high-security prison in El Salvador.
— BERNAMA-dpa