Trump administration says it did not defy court order on deportations

David Catanese, Miami Herald on Mar 17, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration says it did not defy a weekend court order to halt the use of wartime powers to fast-track deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.

“The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist (Tren de Aragua) aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.”

The question of President Donald Trump’s adherence to judicial checks is newly pertinent after the federal government flew 238 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador over the weekend despite a federal judge’s restraining order blocking the move for 14 days.

In their appeal to the D.C. circuit court, Trump’s attorneys said they were notified of the judicial order on Sunday morning, after using powers granted by President Donald Trump’s executive order on Friday declaring that Tren de Aragua gang members had invaded the United States on behalf of the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venzuela. The order, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime detainment and deportation law rarely used in peacetime, allowed the administration to quickly expel immigrants from the country without going through the standard legal process.

“Some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from the United States territory under the Proclamation before the issuance of this Court’s second order,” wrote Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign in the appeal.

Leavitt, in her separate statement, also said the judge’s written order does not conflict with Trump’s executive order unleashing powers afforded by the Alien Enemies Act.

“Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear — federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the president’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion,” Leavitt continued. “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.”

For weeks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special presidential envoy Richard Grenell and special envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone negotiated with the governments of El Salvador and Maduro, who is serving as Venezuela’s president, to facilitate the removals, according to court documents.

“The foreign policy of the U.S. would suffer harm if the removal of the individuals associated with TdA were prevented, taking into account … the possibility foreign interlocutors might change their minds regarding their willingness to accept certain individuals associated with TdA removed or might otherwise seek to leverage this as an ongoing issue,” wrote Michael G. Kozak, a senior Trump official in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, in a court filing Saturday.

Trump allies have signaled they are itching for a fight with what they see as activist courts impeding the president’s prerogatives.

A hearing before District Judge James Boasberg, who blocked the Trump administration Saturday evening from using the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport Venezuelans, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Eastern time Monday.

On Fox News Monday, border czar Tom Homan said the administration is planning more international deportation flights.

“We’re not stopping, I don’t care what judges say, I don’t care what the left thinks, we’re coming,” said Homan.

Critics of the administration stress that many of the alleged gang members could be denied due process without a trial. The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case before Judge James Boasberg on behalf of five Venezuelans threatened with deportation under the Alien Enemies Act, said several of their clients slated for deportation had been wrongly accused of being gang members

“People on the flight sent to El Salvador had ZERO opportunity to contest the government’s evidence. Many said they were falsely accused of belong(ing) to Tren de Aragua,” posted Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at The American Immigration Council. “There was no due process at all.”