US admits suspending appeal for immigrants

Donald Trump's administration says it is "seriously considering" suspending the appeal rights of immigrants in the United States who are the target of deportation plans if they continue to face resistance in the courts.

“The Constitution clearly states that the law of habeas corpus can be suspended during an invasion,” White House adviser Stephen Miller told reporters on Friday.

Habeas corpus is one of the fundamental principles of Anglo-Saxon law, which guarantees that any individual can challenge his or her detention before a judge if he or she considers it arbitrary. This right has rarely been suspended in American history.

“It’s an option we’re seriously considering. Much will depend on how the courts behave” on immigration matters, Stephen Miller added.

President Donald Trump has made combating illegal immigration a top priority, saying the country is being “invaded” by “criminal aliens” and promising mass deportations of immigrants.

The deportation program has, however, been thwarted or slowed by several court decisions in favor of deportees’ rights. Several federal courts and appeals courts, as well as the Supreme Court, have temporarily blocked the use of the 1798 “enemy aliens” law, previously used exclusively in wartime.

This was invoked in March by the Trump Administration to deport to El Salvador Venezuelans identified as members of a gang declared a “terrorist” organization.

Trump promised during the campaign to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally.

The White House on Thursday asked the US Supreme Court to authorize it to end legal protections for more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The emergency appeal filed Friday with the top US court seeks to suspend a previous order by District Judge Indira Talwani that maintains the temporary legal status of immigrants from those four countries, preventing their expulsion from the country.

The Republican administration argues that the decision improperly interferes with the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. “The district court overturned one of the Administration’s most important immigration policy decisions,” Attorney General John Sauer wrote in the Supreme Court brief.

The decision by District Judge Indira Talwani in mid-April came shortly before the immigrants' permits were revoked, which would have put them in danger of being deported.

The Trump administration has sought to dismantle Democratic President Joe Biden’s policies that created new ways for people to live legally in the country, usually for two years with work authorization. Biden has used humanitarian parole more than any other president, employing a special presidential authority that has been in place since 1952.

Beneficiaries included more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who entered the United States with two-year permits since late 2022 and authorization to work.

Talwani, a Boston judge appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama, said immigrants who are in the United States legally under humanitarian parole now face the choice of “fleeing the country” or staying and “risking losing everything.” She said the government’s explanation for ending the humanitarian parole program was “based on a misreading of the law.”

The case is the latest in a series of emergency challenges the Trump administration has filed with the Supreme Court, many of them related to immigration.