Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Blocks Deportations; Imprisonment in El Salvador; US-Iran Nuclear Talks
Sat, 19 Apr 2025
The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelans. Also, President Trump this week raised the possibility of sending US citizens convicted of crimes to prison in El Salvador. And we'll hear the latest on the second round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What recent Supreme Court ruling affects Venezuelan deportations?
The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelans.
The administration accuses the men of being gang members. I'm Scott Simon.
I'm Ayesha Roscoe, and this is Up First from NPR News.
The overnight Supreme Court ruling came as the Trump administration was preparing to deport the men being held in Texas under a rarely used wartime act. We'll have the latest.
This week, President Trump also raised the possibility of sending U.S. citizens convicted of crimes to prison in El Salvador. But does he have the authority to follow through?
And the U.S. and Iran are today holding a second round of talks to discuss Tehran's nuclear program.
So stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.
On the next through line from NPR.
For the presidency, I'm indebted to almighty God. I'm in charge of the country and I need to serve all the American people and not just the political machine.
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Chapter 2: What is the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act?
Well, in a brief order issued after midnight Eastern time, justices wrote that the government is directed to not remove any member of the, quote, putative class of detainees from the United States until further order from the court. These would be some of the Venezuelan migrants being held at the Blue Bonnet facility in Texas. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
And what spurred this order?
Well, earlier, the Supreme Court had decided that the administration could continue deporting under the act. This was a few weeks ago. But only if detainees were given due process to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act.
The American Civil Liberties Union Friday afternoon filed multiple documents in court that showed immigration authorities were moving quickly to restart removals under the Alien Enemies Act, despite the previous Supreme Court's request for that due process. Here's Lee Gelern, one of the lawyers from the ACLU who spoke with my colleague Jasmine Garst.
The government has now given them no notice, given them forms in English that doesn't explain to them how to contest their removal.
He said people got less than a day to contest their removal. So the ACLU filed for a request to have the courts pause the deportations at the D.C. District Court. Judge James Boesberg denied that request because he said he did not believe he had jurisdiction. That prompted the immediate appeal from the ACLU and then the later decision from the Supreme Court.
In a minute, please remind us what the Supreme Court said when the issue was first brought to them.
The Alien Enemies Act is a rarely used presidential power that Trump invoked last month, right? And it has only been previously used in times of active war, the last time being World War II. Immigrant rights groups originally sued the administration over the use of the act when over 100 people were put on flights and sent to El Salvador, where they're now in a mega prison.
Lawyers say that this resulted in mass confusion. Attorneys, even those on behalf of the government, arrived at hearings where clients were missing and then family members learned that their loved ones were sent to El Salvador and that prison specifically because of social media posts from both the US government and the Salvadoran government.
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Chapter 7: What are the latest developments in U.S.-Iran nuclear talks?
And I should mention, U.S. courts have said that the people taken to El Salvador got limited or no due process before they were sent there, something they are legally entitled to. And now that they're in El Salvador, the administration is saying they no longer have control over what happens to them.
And what does that mean for those people?
Well, it means that they're being deprived of protections that they would have had if they had been held in the United States. The government here has a duty by law to care for people in its custody. U.S. prisons and immigration detention centers are far from perfect, to be sure, but there are still layers of oversight.
The federal government monitors and inspects its prisons and detention centers. People in custody have the right to pursue legal action if they allege abuse or neglect. And judges can intervene when laws are violated. Legal experts I spoke to said it's extremely hard, if not impossible, to see how any of that could happen once people are in a Salvadoran prison.
And Meg, we also know that President Trump and Attorney General Bondi are exploring the idea of sending what they call homegrown criminals abroad. Would their situation be any different?
So the Trump administration has clarified that quote, homegrowns in this case means U.S. citizens. And I should note that legal experts say there is absolutely no U.S. law that would give Trump the ability to send U.S. citizens to foreign prisons. But if someone in the U.S.
is convicted of a crime, their constitutional rights, like the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, should, in theory, still apply no matter where they're sent. That's according to Lauren Brooke Eisen. She's the senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice. But she says...
The worry is that once someone is sent outside of the jurisdiction of the United States, it becomes much more difficult to protect and enforce their constitutional rights.
And what does the federal government say about all this?
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