White House ignored a judge’s order to turn back deportation flights
The president signed the executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act on Friday night, but intentionally did not advertise it. On Saturday morning, word of the order leaked, officials said, prompting a mad scramble to get planes in the air.
- At 2:31 p.m. Saturday, an immigration activist who tracks deportation flights, posted on X that “TWO HIGHLY UNUSUAL ICE flights” were departing from Texas to El Salvador, which had agreed to accept Venezuelan gang members deported from the U.S.
- Hours later, during a court hearing hours later filed by the ACLU., Boasberg ordered a halt to the deportations and said any flights should be turned around mid-air.
- “This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately,” he told the Justice Department, according to the Washington Post.
- At that point, about 6:51 p.m., both flights were off the Yucatan Peninsula, according to flight paths posted on X.
Inside the White House, officials discussed whether to order the planes to turn around. On advice from a team of administration lawyers, the administration pressed ahead.
- “There was a discussion about how far the judge’s ruling can go under the circumstances and over international waters and, on advice of counsel, we proceeded with deporting these thugs,” the senior official said.
In a hastily scheduled hearing sought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the judge said he did not believe federal law allowed the president’s action, and ordered that any flights that had departed with Venezuelan immigrants under Trump’s executive order return to the United States “however that’s accomplished — whether turning around the plane or not.”
“This is something you need to make sure is complied with immediately,” he said.
A lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, told the judge that he did not have many details to share, and that describing operational details would raise “national security issues.”
The precise timing of the flights to El Salvador is important because Judge Boasberg issued his order shortly before 7 p.m. in Washington, but video posted from El Salvador shows the deportees disembarking the plane at night. El Salvador is two time zones behind Washington, which raises questions about whether the Trump administration ignored an explicit court order.
Judge Boasberg’s order to turn flights around came after he told the government earlier on Saturday not to deport five Venezuelan men who were the initial focus of the legal fight. The Trump administration is appealing Judge Boasberg’s order.
On Sunday, Mr. Bukele posted a screenshot on social media about Judge Boasberg’s order and wrote, “Oopsie… Too late.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio later shared Mr. Bukele’s post from his personal account. [Continue reading…]
The use of the Alien Enemies Act is not consistent with the text of the statute or past U.S. practice dating to the WWII era (the last time it was invoked) and earlier, according to legal experts. By its terms, the Act applies only when there is a “declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government” or an “invasion” perpetrated “against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government.”
“The constitutional text makes clear that invasion refers to an actual attack,” wrote Ilya Somin, a law professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. “The absurdity” of the administration’s position “becomes even more clear when we recall that the invasion provisions of the Constitution – especially the Guarantee Clause – were understood to protect not only against foreign invasion, but against invasions of one state by another.” It is unclear how the administration could lawfully assert that the Venezuelan gang could constitute a “foreign nation or government” for purposes of the Act. [Continue reading…]