移民送還差し止めの地裁判断退ける 米最高裁

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】米連邦最高裁は７日、トランプ政権が実施した不法移民の強制送還をめぐる下級裁の差し止め命令について、ほとんど使われたことのない戦時法を用いて退けた。トランプ政権にとって、勝利を意味する判断が示された形となる。（写真は米首都ワシントンの連邦最高裁判所）
　トランプ政権は３月、米国内で拘束されていたギャング構成員とされるベネズエラ人２００人超をエルサルバドルの刑務所へ送還。１７９８年の立法以来、戦時下に３回発動されただけの「敵性外国人法」を根拠法とした。
　これに対し、首都ワシントンの連邦地裁のジェームズ・ボースバーグ判事は、同法を根拠とするさらなる送還便を禁止する差し止め命令を出した。
　今回、最高裁判事は５対４で、一時的に差し止められていた強制送還の再開を容認した。
　不法移民の送還を公約に掲げていたドナルド・トランプ大統領は、自身のＳＮＳ「トゥルース・ソーシャル」で、「最高裁は、それが誰であろうと大統領たる者がわが国の国境を守り、われわれの家族や祖国そのものを守ることを可能にし、わが国の法の支配を支持した」と歓迎。「米国の司法にとって素晴らしい日だ！」とつづった。
　ただし、最高裁が送還差し止め命令を解除したのは、主に訴訟の管轄地に関する手続き上の理由からだった。強制送還の差し止めを求めて訴えを起こした移民はテキサス州にいるのに対し、ボーズバーグ判事の下で審理が行われたのはワシントンだった。
　また最高裁は、「敵性外国人法」に基づく移民の送還には、事前通知を含めた適正な手続きが必要であることを明確にし、対象となる移民には、法的に異議を唱える機会を有する権利があるとも述べた。
　送還されたベネズエラ人の弁護団は、対象者はギャングとは関係がなく、「タトゥーがあるために標的にされた」だけだと主張している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/04/08-17:35）

The US Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a victory on Monday by lifting a lower court order barring the deportation of undocumented Venezuelan migrants using an obscure wartime law.
But the nation's top court also said that migrants subject to deportation under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act must be given an opportunity to legally challenge their removal.
The 5-4 decision by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to resume deportations for now that had been blocked by a federal district court judge.
Trump invoked the AEA, which has only previously been used during wartime, to round up alleged Venezuelan gang members and summarily deport them to a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador.
Attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.
The Republican president, who campaigned on a pledge to expel millions of undocumented migrants, welcomed the top court's ruling in a post on Truth Social.
The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself, Trump said. A GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!
District Judge James Boasberg issued temporary restraining orders barring further flights of deportees under the AEA after planeloads of Venezuelan migrants were sent to El Salvador on March 15.
The Supreme Court lifted Boasberg's orders but mostly on technical grounds related to venue -- that the group of Venezuelan migrants who sued to prevent their removal are in Texas while the case before Boasberg was brought in Washington.
The detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia, the justices said, leaving the door open to possible further challenges to the legality of using the AEA to be heard in lower courts.
- 'Important victory' -
At the same time, the Supreme Court made it clear that migrants subject to deportation under the AEA, which has only been used during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II, are entitled to some form of due process.
AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act, the court said.
Detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal, it said. The only question is which court will resolve that challenge.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed suit against the deportations, said the Supreme Court's ruling that deportees were entitled to due process was an important victory.
Chief Justice John Roberts and four other conservative justices voted to lift the district court order's temporarily barring the deportations using the AEA while the three liberal justices and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, dissented.
The President of the United States has invoked a centuries-old wartime statute to whisk people away to a notoriously brutal, foreign-run prison, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said. For lovers of liberty, this should be quite concerning.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, another liberal, said the Government's conduct in this litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law. We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this.
The Trump administration has used images of the alleged Tren de Aragua gang members being shackled and having their heads shaved in the Central American prison as proof that it is serious about cracking down on illegal immigration.