In Florida, border czar says judges 'not going to stop' Trump's mass deportations

Days after the federal government invoked extraordinary wartime powers to quickly deport Venezuelans accused of being dangerous gang members, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the president’s border czar met in Florida — the heart of the country’s Venezuelan-American community — to underscore that the Trump administration remains undeterred in its efforts.

“The district judges are not going to stop us from making this country safe again. We are going to keep moving forward,” Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said during a panel on Thursday at the New College of Florida with DeSantis. Judges “are not going to stop this,” he added.

Homan doubled down on the decision to fly hundreds of Venezuelans to a mega prison in El Salavor despite a judge’s order to turn the planes around — a move that is currently being litigated.

“I find it remarkable that any district judge has the authority to overrule the President’s executive orders, and basically he wanted us to turn planes around in mid-air full of terrorists and bring them back into the United States, which is ridiculous, and we didn’t do it.”

The Trump administration has justified its action by arguing that many deportees were public safety threats because they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump has designated as a terrorist group. A federal judge has asked the Trump administration to submit more information to the court to determine whether it flouted the court’s orders.

The comments from Homan and DeSantis also come as about 350,000 Venezuelans, many of them in South Florida, are set to lose their deportation protections after the Trump administration eliminated their Temporary Protected Status.

While DeSantis did not delve into the specifics of the case, he said he believes the Trump administration “will put forward all the right arguments.” The governor also said Republicans in Congress should strip the courts of jurisdiction over certain issues, such as immigration, to ensure Trump’s agenda isn’t stopped.

The governor’s remarks give insight into how he wants Republicans at the national and state levels to act to ensure the Trump administration keeps its promise to carry out the largest deportation effort in American history. In Florida, he emphasized, law enforcement officials will be going after everyone who is in the country illegally, regardless of whether they have a criminal record.

“If you are a Venezuelan gang member, yes, that is going to be a priority,” DeSantis said. “But that doesn’t mean that people who are here illegally or not part of this gang or have not been convicted of a crime, that somehow that means you’re fine.”

In court records, a top ICE official acknowledged that “many” Venezuelans deported to El Salvador did not have criminal records in the United States, but argued it was because they hadn’t spent enough time here. The agency found that others had criminal histories in the United States, Venezuela, and elsewhere, based on court records and victim and suspect interviews, among other tools, the official said. However, the official did not provide public evidence or point to specific people’s records.

Several family members and attorneys of the Venezuelan men have denied any affiliation with gangs. In one case, a lawyer said in court records that the Department of Homeland Security had used a tattoo inspired by her client’s favorite soccer team, Real Madrid, and a photo of him making a rock-and-roll hand gesture to accuse him of being a Tren de Aragua member.

She said her client had been tortured for participating in anti-Maduro protests in Venezuela and sought asylum in the United States. The top ICE official said in his sworn declaration that the agency did not rely on social media photos and tattoos alone to determine gang affiliation.

The details that led to the arrest and deportation of Venezuelans were not a focus of the discussion on Thursday. DeSantis argued that it is important for states to go full-throttle on federal immigration enforcement — regardless of whether individuals have been convicted of a crime.

The governor pointed to Florida’s large-scale effort to get more than 100 law enforcement agencies enrolled in a federal immigration program that gives local officers the ability to stop and arrest undocumented immigrants. He also said the state intends to enforce a new law that makes it a crime to enter Florida after coming into the country without proper immigration status.

“We’re holding you accountable if you’ve entered the state of Florida illegally,” he said. “If you don’t have interior enforcement, you do not have control of your country.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier this week threatened municipalities that fail to participate in federal immigration enforcement partnerships with ICE with consequences — ranging from civil penalties to removal from office by the governor. DeSantis has signaled a desire to take action, too.

At the state level, DeSantis talked up the effort by the Florida Highway Patrol to train state troopers across the state to enforce federal immigration laws. The agency is prepared to have at least 800 troopers — about half of its statewide force — to help ICE with immigration enforcement in Florida.

The efforts in Florida and by the Trump administration have not been without concern in South Florida, a stronghold for Venezuelan immigrants.

One of DeSantis’ own appointees, Miami-Dade School Board member Daniel Espino, voted with Democrats on the board to ask the Trump administration to create new protections for immigrants who will soon lose their deportation protections and work permits under Temporary Protect Status, also known as TPS.

Espino, who sponsored the resolution, represents an area that includes Doral, home to hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants, many of whom have or have family on TPS. At a meeting Wednesday, he said residents have expressed their concern about TPS ending, and urged board members to vote in favor of asking Trump to give them protections from deportations.

During the panel discussion on Thursday, DeSantis brushed off concerns that an immigration crackdown would draw backlash from the Venezuelan community in South Florida. He said he was warned backlash could occur when he flew a group of nearly 50 migrants — most, if not all, hailing from Venezuela — to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022. But that never happened, he claimed.

“I remember, the next time I was in Doral, like a week later, a group of these guys came up to me at some cafe and they all just started hugging me and back slapping me, saying ‘we are Venezuelans, thanks for what you did’,” the governor said. “They said that Maduro was sending a lot of bad people.”

_____