The White House denied allegations according to which it engaged in a “blatant violation” of the ordinance of a judge by deporting 250 gang members alleged venezuelans In El Salvador on Saturday, the American border tsar seeming to contradict the refusal on Monday by declaring: “I don’t care what the judges think.”
US district judge James E Boasberg has planned an audience for Monday afternoon to demand an explanation on the reason why his Saturday order The temporarily blocking of expulsion flights had apparently been ignored.
THE Trump administration had ordered at least some of the deportations using the Act extraterrestrial enemiesA law of 1798 which was supposed to be used in wartime. The president discreetly invoked the law on Friday and progressive groups almost immediately continued their opinion.
Saturday, during a hearing during the case, Boasberg added a verbal command That all the flights which had already left with Venezuelan immigrants using the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies turn back and return to the United States.
“This is something that you must make sure that you are immediately respected,” he said at the Ministry of Justice, according to the Washington Post.
At that time (around 6:51 p.m. he, according to Axios), the two flights were out of the Yucatán peninsula, according to flight trips Posted on X.
Later on Saturday evening, however, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, confirmed that the planes had landed in his country and that the alleged members of the gangs were in detention, displaying on social networks “Oopsia … Too late” Above a press article on the judge’s order to overthrow the planes.
Officials of the White House insisted that migrants were no longer on American territory when the judge made his order, saying that he did not apply.
The administration “did not” refuse to comply “to a court order”, said The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement on Monday.
She also argued, however, that the order itself did not need to be followed in the first place.
“The ordinance, which had no legitimate basis, was issued after the terrorist TDA (Tren of Aragua) of foreigners had already been withdrawn from American territory,” said Leavitt. “The written order and the actions of the administration are not in conflict.
“As the Supreme Court has clearly indicated it on several occasions – the federal courts generally have no competence on the conduct of the President of Foreign Affairs, its authorities under the law on extraterrestrial enemies and its main powers of Article II to withdraw foreign foreign terrorists from the American soil and repel a declared invasion.
“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrying foreign terrorists who have been physically expelled from the American soil.”
Other officials of the Trump administration, who have not been appointed, have echoed declarations similar to Axios Regarding the decision that arrives too late, claiming that the administration did not challenge the judge because the planes were “already outside of American airspace” and therefore arguing that the order was “not applicable”.
In a legal file on Monday, lawyers of the administration said that the judge’s oral ordinance was “not enforceable”.
ABC News Also said that the administration cited “operational” and “national security” reasons that planes were to land and that the two planes took off during the hearing on Saturday.
Sunday, when asked if the administration had violated the judge’s orders, Donald Trump said: “I don’t know, you have to talk to lawyers about it.” He added: “I can tell you this, they were bad people.”
Reuters said the Trump administration said in a legal file on Sunday that “some” Venezuelans had already been withdrawn from the United States before the judge’s order, but had not provided additional details.
THE New York Times noted that the file implied that the government had other legal reasons for the deportations of the Venezuelans, other than the use of the Act on Extraterrestrial Enemies which was blocked by the judge.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward, who continued to stop the use of the law, added on Monday in a judicial file that they believe that the government violated the court order, calling for the actions of the administration A “blatant violation of the court order”.
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Rights defense groups asked the judge To oblige the administration to clarify if thefts died after the judge’s orders and to provide more information on flight schedules.
Monday morning, Boasberg has planned a 16 -hour hearing For Trump administration To explain if they have challenged his order.
Later Monday morning, Tom Homan, Trump’s “Tsar Frontier”, told journalists: “At the time when the order came, the plane was already on international waters, with a plane full of terrorists and major public security threats.”
He added: “To turn the plane on international waters” and “return with terrorists in the United States is not what this president promised to the American people”.
He followed the remarks in an appearance on Fox and Friends, where According to the hill He said: “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care.”
He repeated his assertion that the theft was “already in international waters”, but also asked why the judge would like “the terrorists returned to the United States”: “Look at President Trump, by proclamation, invoked the authorities of the law on extraterrestrial enemies, which he has the right to do, and it is a game of play”.
Georgetown’s law professor Steve Vladeck critical The administration’s argument that it was too late to act once the planes left the United States. He argued on social networks that “the jurisdiction of a federal court does not stop at the water’s edge”, but rather “the question is whether the defendants are subject to the order of the court, and not where the contested conduct takes place”.
Vladeck also said to Associated Press That although the judge’s verbal directive to reverse the planes is not technically part of his final written order, nevertheless the Trump administration has clearly violated its “spirit”.
Peter Markowitz, professor at Cardozo Law School and expert in application of immigration, said to Reuters That he believed that the actions of the Trump administration “most certainly violated” the order of the court.
In a statement on Monday, Democratic Senators Alex Padilla, Cory Booker, Dick Durbin and Peter Welch condemned the invocation by Trump of the Extraterrestrial Enemies Act.
“Let’s be clear: we are not at war, and the immigrants do not go their country,” they said. “In addition, the courts determine whether people have violated the law – not an acting president, and not immigration agents who pick and choose who is imprisoned or expelled.”
Deportations may not be the only case of the White House directly violating a court order, after The administration would have expelled Dr. Rasha AlawiehSpecialist in renal transplant and professor of Brown University, despite an order of the court temporarily blocking its expulsion.
Citing his lawyer and court documents, the New York Times reported that the 34 -year -old Lebanese citizen – who had a valid American visa – was detained Thursday after having returned to the United States after visiting his family in Lebanon. A federal judge would have ordered the government to provide the court with a 48 -hour notice before expelling Alawieh, but it would have been in flight to Paris anyway. An audience in its case is set for Monday.
