Supreme Court Blocks Deportations; Imprisonment in El Salvador; US-Iran Nuclear Talks
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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.

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The Supreme Court's late-night order to stop the deportation of the Venezuelan men followed an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union. The court took issue with the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act. We're joined now by NPR's Ximena Bastillo. Ximena, thanks for being with us. Good morning. What's the order say?

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 Gillern, 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. And 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 confusions.

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 U.S. government and the Salvadoran government.

The Trump administration alleges that all people they flew there are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act. But the lawyers say that many are not, and they never got the opportunity to fight the deportations and allegations in court. During a previous use of the act, lawyers argue that those being removed during World War II still had hearing boards to make their cases.

How does the government's latest attempt to remove people using that Alien Enemies Act line up with what the Supreme Court had previously ordered?

The Justice Department argued that notices comply with previous Supreme Court's guidance on the issue. And I reached out to the Homeland Security Department last night, and they declined to comment on, quote, counterterrorism operations. But they did say that they believe they are complying with the Supreme Court's original ruling. Still, the ACLU argues that they're not. They have since been suing the administration in each individual district court since that first ruling. And judges in several districts have blocked the deportations of people using the alien enemies as...

The ACLU alleges that in recent days, many Venezuelan migrants were specifically brought to that Blue Bonnet facility because it is a facility in a court district where deportations have not yet been blocked. The government denies that this is their strategy. Amanda Bastio, thanks so much. Thank you. The Trump administration has already deported more than 250 migrants to El Salvador.

But now President Trump says he's exploring options to have U.S. citizens who are convicted of crimes incarcerated in the Central American country. That suggestion has been condemned by legal experts as akin to dropping citizens into a black box. And Paris criminal justice reporter Meg Anderson joins us. Meg, thanks for being with us. Thank you for having me. We know that hundreds of immigrants have already been sent to El Salvador.

What kind of conditions do they face there? Yeah. So the mega prison that they were sent to is known as Seacott, and it is notorious. Human rights groups have reported torture and medical neglect in that prison and other Salvadoran prisons and say inmates are often denied due process and even contact with family and lawyers. Machinism.

Michelle Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, put that situation in perspective for me. It would be an absolutely Kafkaesque situation where the family has no idea where the person is, what kind of conditions they're being held in.

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...

It becomes much more difficult to protect and enforce their constitutional rights. And what does the federal government say about all this? So I reached out to both the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security for this story.

In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the immigrants sent to El Salvador are, quote, terrorists, that they had final deportation orders, and that there was due process. But she did not provide any evidence for those assertions. The DOJ, for its part, did not respond to questions about outsourcing U.S. prisoners abroad. NPR's Meg Anderson, thanks so much. You're welcome. Thank you.

The U.S. and Iran are holding a fresh round of nuclear talks in Rome today. President Trump says the goal is to prevent Iran from ever having a nuclear weapon, and he insists that reaching a deal will be, quote, easy. So will it? Joined now by NPR's international affairs correspondent, Jackie Northam. Jackie, thanks for being with us.

Good morning, Scott. And what's the latest? Well, as you said, this is the second meeting between the U.S. and Iran. Last week, the two sides met in Oman for what was considered a groundbreaking meeting in some ways. It's been years since the two sides had held direct talks. But essentially, that one was a formality really to get the ball rolling. Today, Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, sits down with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi.

to get more to the meat of the issue. But, you know, over the past few days, Wyckoff has been putting out seemingly contradictory statements. He first said that Iran could enrich uranium to low-grade level to produce energy. Then he turned around and said Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment. And, you know, that would be a non-starter for Iran, which insists on its right to enrich uranium for civilian use.

You know, in its first term in 2018, Trump pulled the U.S. out of a previous nuclear accord negotiated by President Obama, and it's known as the JCPOA. And it prevented Iran from producing highly enriched uranium, which can be used to make bombs, in return for an easing of sanctions. And Trump called it the worst deal in history. So he'll presumably be hoping to squeeze more concessions out of Iran this time.

These talks come after President Trump appeared to confirm a report in The New York Times that he'd held off a potential Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear installations. How's that played into this round of talks?

Well, Trump said Thursday that he still supports a negotiated deal with Iran over its nuclear program. But he also noted that failure to reach an agreement would be, in his words, very bad for Iran. And, you know, that came when he was asked about a report that claimed he had waved off an Israeli plan to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. This is what he said. I wouldn't say waved off. I'm not in a rush to do it because I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country.

And to live happily without death. And, you know, according to that report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had laid out the plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities when he visited the White House recently. And that was when Trump publicly announced that his envoy would be holding direct talks with Iran for the first time in more than a decade. And NPR has not been able to independently verify that reporting, I have to add. What does Iran hope to get out of these talks?

Well, basically, Iran is not in a position of strength right now. Since the start of the Gaza war 18 months ago, Israel has decimated Iran's main proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. And it took out key Iranian air defenses when the two countries traded missile fire last year for the first time ever.

And since Trump has returned to office, the U.S. has been carrying out frequent strikes on the Houthis, which are also aligned with Iran. And the Houthi leadership said that more than 70 people were killed in a U.S. airstrike on a port in Yemen earlier this week. Analysts I've spoken to expect Iran to try to drag out these talks for as long as possible without making any real concessions since they are negotiating from a position of weakness.

But President Trump has made clear the clock is ticking. And one source familiar with the ongoing situation with Iran and Israel, who wanted to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to talk to the media, he tells my colleague Tom Bowman that there's a 50-50 chance Israel will hit Iran and that that likelihood increases the longer negotiations are drawn out. And for us, Jackie Northam, thanks so much for being with us. Thank you, Scott.

And that's Up First. For Saturday, April 19, 2025, I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Hold up, hold up, wait, wait. If you're pleased, we got one more thing for you today. Here at Up First, we take keeping you informed seriously. Meanwhile, our friends at NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me take making fun of the news very seriously.

Each week they create a news quiz and we want to give up first listeners the chance to play along. Test your knowledge of the week's news against the show's panelists by listening every weekend.

Here's this week's lightning fill-in-the-blank news quiz. Now it's time for our final game, lightning fill-in-the-blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as they can. Each correct answer now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores? Adam has one, Alonzo has two, Dulce has four. Dulce, you're clearly in the lead. Alonzo is in second and Adam is in third place. So Adam, we start with you.

Here we go. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, a federal judge threatened to open a contempt inquiry against the blank. Trump administration. Exactly. On Tuesday, researchers in Texas said funding cuts have slowed that state's response to the blank outbreak. Measles. Right. On Thursday, the Supreme Court said they'd hear arguments on Trump's plan to end birthright blank. Citizenship. Right. On Monday, the FAA announced plans to test a new system made to detect unregistered blanks.

Um, drones? Right. This week, authorities in Kenya caught two teens trying to smuggle blank out of the country. Four giraffes. No, 5,000 ants. On Thursday, NASA confirmed that the James Webb Telescope has detected a possible sign of blank on a distant planet. Life. Right. On Wednesday, a judge dismissed a lawsuit against the New Orleans Blanks for their use of a fleur-de-lis.

- Saints? - Yeah, the Saints. After his wife explained that money was tight and they couldn't afford their annual family holiday, a man in the UK came up with an ingenious solution and blanked. - Took him on the vacation he had when he was a kid? - No, he booked the vacation anyway with the kids, but not his wife.

His wife said that this extensive house renovation they had just done meant they wouldn't have the money to all go on vacation. The husband said, I guess you're right, went ahead and booked one for him and the kids and not her. It's a really smart financial decision because from now on, he'll never have to worry about going on vacation with his wife ever again or even living with her. Bill, how did Adam do with our quiz? I think he did rather well. He's way out in front. Six right, 12 more points, total of 13 in the league game. All right.

Alonzo, you are up next. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, the White House confirmed tariffs of up to 245% on some products from blank. China. Right. On Tuesday, blank. It gave his first public remarks since leaving office. Biden. Right. This week, officials in Puerto Rico said the cause of an island-wide blank is still unclear. Black-eye. Right. On Tuesday, two attendees at blank's town hall were tased with stun guns.

Marjorie Taylor Greene. That's right. According to new data, millions of people in Sweden are currently glued to their TVs watching blank. Hockey? Watching 24-hour live coverage of this year's moose migration. On Tuesday, director Chris Columbus said he wishes he could remove blank's cameo from Home Alone 2. Trump. Right. This week, a woman went viral because she refused to take off a Zoom filter that made her face look like a plate of breakfast during blank.

A meeting? Well, specifically, she refused to stop using that filter that made her face look like a plate of breakfast during a job interview. Doing it over Zoom, she left the breakfast filter on entirely, her eyes superimposed over fried eggs, her mouth on a slice of toast. She explained to the somewhat confused interviewer that she was, quote, not feeling well today and using the filter to help. That's one way to be memorable. That's how you get a job at Waffle House. Yeah.

Bill, how did Alonzo do in our quiz? Well, he's making it a very close race. Five rights, ten more points, but his 12 is one short of Adam. All right. Well, how many then does Dulce need to win the game? Five to win. Here we go, Dulce. This is for the game.

They're on your side. Here we go. On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg took the stand at an antitrust trial to defend his company, blank. Facebook? Yeah, Meta, but Facebook as well. According to a new study, blanking faster could reduce risk of abnormal heart rhythms. Breathing faster? Walking faster. This week, an election debate in Canada was delayed two hours so that it didn't interrupt blank. Hockey. Right. On Monday, the Vatican announced they were putting architect Antony Gaudi on the path to blankhood.

Right. This week, Twinkies announced that they were now shifting their marketing away from families and towards blank. Single men. No. Stoners. Single men.

Twinkies is embracing its destiny and going right for the stoners. They announced the creation of the Munchie Mobile, which will tour the country's dispensaries and hand out free snacks to the customers there. It's like the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile if the Wienermobile kept forgetting to pick its little brother up from middle school.

Bill, did Dulce do well enough to win? She got four right, eight more points, 12. That means she's one behind the Irishman who wins. Wow. Adam Burke. See how closely you follow the week's news and have some fun by listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz every Saturday. It's available in the NPR app and wherever you get your podcasts.

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