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Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, also asserted that the federal courts “have no jurisdiction” over President Trump’s conduct of
foreign affairs or his power to expel foreign enemies.
The Trump administration denied on Sunday that it had violated a court
order by deporting hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a prison in El
Salvador over the weekend, saying that the president had broad powers to quickly expel them under an 18th-century law meant for wartime.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also asserted in a
statement that the federal courts “have no jurisdiction” over the
president’s conduct of foreign affairs or his power to expel foreign
enemies.
“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an
aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically
expelled from U.S. soil,” she said in a statement. It was unclear why she referred to an aircraft carrier, because all indications were that the Venezuelans had been flown to El Salvador.
While White House officials exulted over what they see as a precedent-
setting victory in their efforts to speed up deportations, the comments
also tacitly acknowledge that the court battles over their legal rationale
may be just beginning.
President Trump signed an executive order on Friday invoking the Alien
Enemies Act of 1798 to rapidly arrest and deport those the administration identifies as members of the Tren de Aragua gang without many of the legal processes common in immigration cases. The enemies law allows for summary deportations of people from countries at war with the United States.
On Saturday, Judge James E. Boasberg of Federal District Court in
Washington issued a temporary restraining order blocking the government
from deporting any immigrants under the law after Mr. Trump’s order
invoking it.
In a hastily scheduled hearing sought by the American Civil Liberties
Union, the judge said he did not believe that federal law allowed the president’s action. He also ordered that any flights that had departed
with Venezuelan immigrants under the 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.
Officials have not said when the deportation flights landed in El
Salvador, but Ms. Leavitt insisted on Sunday that the migrants “had
already been removed from U.S. territory” at the time of the judge’s
order. She did not say whether the planes could have, as the judge
ordered, turned around and returned to the United States.
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, posted a three-minute video on
social media of men in handcuffs being led off a plane during the night
and marched into prison. The video also shows prison officials shaving the prisoners’ heads.
The Trump administration hopes that the unusual prisoner transfer deal —
not a swap but an agreement for El Salvador to take those suspected of
being gang members — will be the beginning of a larger effort to use the
Alien Enemies Act.
That law, best known for its role in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, has been invoked three times in U.S. history — during
the War of 1812 and both World Wars — according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy organization. American officials familiar with
the deal said that the United States would pay El Salvador about $6
million to house the prisoners.
During the hearing on Saturday, Judge Boasberg said he was ordering the government to turn flights around given “information, unrebutted by the government, that flights are actively departing.”
A lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, told Judge Boasberg
that he did not have many details to share, and that describing
operational details would raise “national security issues.”
The 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 had 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 the judge’s order.
In a court filing, the Trump administration said the Departments of State
and Homeland Security were “promptly notified” of the judge’s written
order when it was posted to the electronic docket at 7:26 p.m. on
Saturday.
The administration said that the five plaintiffs who filed suit to block
their deportations — the suit that yielded the judge’s first order on
Saturday — had not been deported.
The filing added that “some gang members subject to removal” by the
president’s decree “had already been removed” from U.S. territory before
Judge Boasberg issued the second, broader 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.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/us/politics/trump-venezuelans- deportations-el-salvador.html
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