Oh, here we go again. Another day, another court ruling that makes you shake your head and wonder when “national security” got replaced with “procedural purity.” Over the weekend, the Supreme Court hit the brakes on deportation flights of suspected Tren de Aragua members—yes, the same foreign criminal syndicate that’s terrorizing half the hemisphere. The ruling came down 7-2, with only Justices Alito and Thomas standing tall and calling it like it is.
Let’s be crystal clear: these are not asylum seekers with shaky stories and nowhere else to go. These are accused members of a transnational gang—rapists, traffickers, extortionists, and worse—operating in U.S. cities from coast to coast. And yet, seven justices decided, “Let’s slow this down.” Why? Because the ACLU cried ‘no due process!’ and the justices didn’t want to look like they were steamrolling the civil liberties crowd.
It’s the latest act in a tired play: when the Biden administration was waving migrants across the border without vetting, we were told not to worry. The media covered for it. The courts barely blinked. But now that President Trump is deporting actual criminals, suddenly we need to treat every case like it’s a Supreme Court moot court final.
Legacy media keeps falsely reporting SCOTUS ordered Trump to facilitate Garcia’s return to the U.S. I really think they believe that and no one bothers to actually read the opinion–which says no such thing! ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/4MisDateoY
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 19, 2025
Here’s the background they don’t want you to remember: the courts already ruled the president can invoke the Alien Enemies Act—a law that dates back to 1798, mind you—to remove foreign nationals who are tied to hostile or violent groups. The one condition? You’ve got to give them advance notice and a chance to file habeas claims if they want to fight it.
So now, the claim is that this specific group in Texas didn’t get that opportunity. Cue the ACLU running to the high court, waving the “due process” flag like it’s the finals of a law school ethics debate. And in this case, the Supreme Court said, fine—we’ll issue a temporary pause so the lower courts can sort this out.
The only explanation I can see for the Supreme Court’s extraordinary 7-2 order that directs the Trump administration “not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court” is that the Court does not trust the Trump… pic.twitter.com/BIovIAFzQk
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) April 19, 2025
But let’s not pretend this is some bombshell defeat for Trump. As Ed Whelan rightly pointed out at National Review, one reason for this decision is the Court doesn’t trust the federal bureaucracy to dot every ‘i’ right now—not after years of administrative chaos under Biden. It’s less a legal rebuke and more a procedural timeout.
And let’s also not forget this: no court has ordered Abrego Garcia—the MS-13-linked deportee—to be brought back. That’s fantasy land stuff being peddled by left-wing commentators trying to spin every deportation into a human rights catastrophe. These are gang members, not displaced saints.
This is why they should have brought Garcia back. The Administration’s behaviors do not exist in a vacuum. They will affect the views of the Justices of the Supreme Court on many things. https://t.co/k59CFtxPFx
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) April 19, 2025
What we’re watching is the politicization of border security, plain and simple. Deportation when it’s a Democrat in charge? No big deal. But deportation when Trump’s in the White House? Cue the lawsuits, op-eds, and teary-eyed press conferences about due process.
The American people aren’t blind. They know what this is. They’ve seen the crime surge. They’ve watched sanctuary cities buckle under the weight of open-border fantasy. And now they see the courts second-guessing the removal of foreign criminals—the very thing Trump promised to fix.
