STORY: :: File
The Trump administration has deported alleged members of a Venezuelan gang from the U.S. despite a court order forbidding it.
And late on Sunday, the White House said the judge who gave that order did not have the authority to block the administration’s actions.
It marks an escalation in Trump’s challenge to the US systems of checks and balances – and the independence of its courts.
On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport more than 200 alleged members of Tren de Aragua,
:: File
a Venezuelan gang that has been linked to kidnapping, extortion and contract killings.
A day later, federal judge James Boasberg blocked the application of the law for 14 days,
saying the statute refers to “hostile acts” perpetrated by another country that are “commensurate to war.”
Boasberg said that any flights carrying migrants processed under the law should return to the U.S.
:: El Salvador Presidency Handout
On Sunday, in response to an article about Boasberg’s order, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele wrote “Oopsie… Too late” on X,
and posted a video showing men being hustled off a plane in the dark of night and taken to the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center – a mega-prison that can hold up to 40,000 inmates.
Reuters could not confirm the full scale of the deportation operations or the precise timing of Bukele’s video.
Later on Sunday, the Trump administration denied it was defying the judge’s order, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, quote,
“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft … full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”
:: El Salvador Presidency Handout
She also said the court had “no lawful basis” and that federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over how a president conducts foreign affairs.
Hours after that, Trump said on Air Force One that he was justified in using the Act because he saw recent years of increased immigration like war:
“This is war. In many respects it’s more dangerous than war because, you know, in a war they have uniforms. You know who you’re shooting at.”
:: El Salvador Presidency Handout
The American Civil Liberties Union was one of the nonprofits that challenged Trump’s use of the Act.
Here’s the lead attorney at the ACLU, Lee Gelernt.
“I think we’re on very dangerous ground here. This is as lawless an action as the administration has taken. If the administration is allowed to use wartime authorities any time it wants to remove people, I think we are going to see more and more people being subjected to this type of Alien Enemies Act and a blurring of wartime authority with domestic authority. I cannot stress how important it is that the federal courts prevent this from happening.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Salvadoran government did not respond to requests for comment,
while the State Department declined to comment.