Supreme Court gives order to Trump that will halt deportation of migrants to 'world's worst prison'
Topics: El Salvador, Politics, US News, Crime, Donald Trump
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Topics: El Salvador, Politics, US News, Crime, Donald Trump
The Trump administration has been ordered to stop deporting migrants to El Salvador for the time being.
It means the men being held in a detention north Texas under a wartime law created back in the 1700s, will be given a chance to prove their innocence before being exiled to the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT). This is all thanks to the order issued by the US Supreme Court in the early hours of this morning (April 19).
The order read in full: "There is before the Court an application on behalf of a putative class of detainees seeking an injunction against their removal under the Alien Enemies Act. The matter is currently pending before the Fifth Circuit.
"Upon action by the Fifth Circuit, the Solicitor General is invited to file a response to the application before this Court as soon as possible."
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While importantly stating: "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.
"Justice Thomas and Justice Alito dissent from the Court's order. Statement from Justice Alito to follow."
To carry out the deportations of the men who have already been flown to El Salvador, Trump used a little-known law that was previously used during WW2 to justify internment camps for Japanese, German and Italian people within the nation. It is known as the 18th-century wartime legislation, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
To catch us all up to speed, the Trump administration flew hundreds of migrants to El Salvador's notoriously violent 'mega-prison' on March 15, despite US District Judge James E. Boasberg having temporarily halted the deportations to having taken place on the same day.
However, White House secretary Karoline Leavitt refuted claims that the Trump administration defied a court order, issuing a statement to say that the president and his team 'did not refuse to comply with a court order'.
While CBS's 60 Minutes carried out an investigation into the 238 Venezuelans who have been branded criminals by the US government - with 179 of those holding no public criminal record.
The prison itself was visited by CNN’s David Culver, who spoke of the ‘spartan’ conditions inmates are expected to live in.
Culver and his team reported that cells are unlike American prisons in that they are ‘built to hold 80 inmates’ or more. As well as this, inmates are held for 23.5 hours a day, far from the expected ‘luxuries’ of American prisons.
Culver reported: “The only furniture is tiered metal bunks, with no sheets, pillows or mattresses … an open toilet, a cement basin and plastic bucket for washing and a large jug for drinking water.”