Solicitor General John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to allow the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members the justices temporarily blocked.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented. A group of Venezuelan migrants had been scheduled to be flown out of the country under the little-used wartime statute, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Supreme Court early Saturday morning paused the deportation of immigrants potentially subject to the Alien Enemies Act, freezing action in a fast-developing case involving a group of immigrants in Texas who say the Trump administration was working to remove them.