The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday kept in place its block on President Donald Trump's deportations of Venezuelan migrants under a 1798 law historically used only in wartime, faulting his administration for seeking to remove them without adequate legal process.

The justices, in a brief and unsigned opinion, granted a request by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys representing the migrants to maintain the halt on the removals for now. The court on April 19 had ordered a temporary stop to the administration's deportations of dozens of migrants being held at a detention center in Texas.

Trump's deportations are part of the Republican president's immigration crackdown since he returned to office in January.