WASHINGTON - US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Donald Trump administration could continue to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants alleged to be gang members.

The court's ruling overturned the District Court for the District of Columbia's decision on Trump administration's employment of the wartime authority, which had temporarily blocked the deportation of some Venezuelan immigrants to a foreign prison in El Salvador.

The District Court had ordered a pause on plaintiffs' removals until it could consider their motion for a preliminary injunction at a hearing on Tuesday. The Trump administration then asked the Supreme Court to weigh in ahead of the hearing.

"The detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia," said the Supreme Court's ruling.

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In mid-March, the Trump administration started sending scores of Venezuelan immigrants detained in the United States to a foreign prison in El Salvador, using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which was previously invoked only three times: during the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain, World War I, and World War II.

The Trump administration claimed these Venezuelan migrants are all members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and that their removals were allowed under the act.

Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello earlier cited a report by The New York Times, which found no evidence linking deported Venezuelans to the gang, adding that Tren de Aragua had already been dismantled by Venezuelan security forces.

Lawyers representing some of those targeted then challenged the order in the federal court in Washington DC, arguing that they were deported without any due process of law.