Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blasted his colleagues for temporarily halting deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act “literally in the middle of the night," in a blistering dissent.

Alito, who is one of the court's more conservative justices, blasted the ruling temporarily pausing flights deporting illegal immigrant gang members to El Salvador. 

In his dissent, Alito stated, "The Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order."

The Supreme Court made the unusual move of making the ruling without waiting for the dissent from Alito, which is another marker of just how quickly this order was pushed through.

Rushed Order

Alito continued in his dissent by saying, 'I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate."

By all accounts, this ruling from the Supreme Court was unprecedented and completely out of order, which is surprising considering the conservative majority that dominates the bench.

The order from the Supreme Court read, "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."

Stopping flights

This effectively stops deportation flights by the Trump administration carried out using the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration was using the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants who had ties to violent transnational gangs.

At the start of his term, President Donald Trump designated violent transnational gangs and drug cartels as terrorist organizations, giving him broad power to carry out deportations and take other actions to combat them.

Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act was immediately met with a flurry of legal challenges due to its traditional use during times of war.

However, Trump has defended his use of the Alien Enemies Act by pointing out that transnational gangs are effectively foreign organizations that are invading the United States. The Supreme Court isn't done with this issue as the final legal battle is yet to come.

White House Response

The Trump administration has since responded to this order by demanding clarification on the rushed order. Specifically, they are seeking to refine the order to allow Alien Enemies Act deportations for any migrant who has not challenged their removal.

They have also requested insight on whether they may remove migrants to El Salvador under immigration authorities.

The Trump administration is confident in eventual victory, but for now, Trump's deportation agenda is on hold amid a massive legal battle. Leftist activist organizations have thrown everything they can at the Trump administration to protect violent illegal immigrants from deportation.