The Trump administration has deported alleged members of a Venezuelan gang from the United States despite a court order prohibiting such action, asserting in an extraordinary statement that a judge lacked the authority to block its decision.
The deportation operation followed a ruling by Judge James Boasberg, who had blocked President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act’s wartime powers to rapidly deport more than 200 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang linked to kidnapping, extortion, and contract killings.
“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from US soil,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
She added that the court had “no lawful basis” for its ruling and that federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over presidential actions related to foreign affairs.
This development marks a significant escalation in Trump’s challenge to the US Constitution’s system of checks and balances and the independence of the judiciary.
Patrick Eddington, a homeland security and civil liberties expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, stated that the White House was in “open defiance” of the judge.
“This is beyond the pale and certainly unprecedented,” Eddington said, calling it the most radical test of America’s system of checks and balances since the Civil War.
In a Saturday evening hearing, Boasberg blocked the use of the law for 14 days, arguing that the statute pertains to “hostile acts” by a foreign state that are “commensurate to war.”
Boasberg also ordered that any flights carrying migrants processed under the law should return to the US.
However, the following day, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele posted footage on social media showing men being removed from a plane at night under heavy security.
“Oopsie Too late,” Bukele wrote above a headline stating, “Fed judge orders deportation flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gangbangers to return to the US.”
Bukele accompanied the comment with a laughing emoji. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposted Bukele’s statement and thanked him for his “assistance and friendship.”
In her statement, Leavitt claimed that “the written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict” and reiterated that courts “generally have no jurisdiction” over the president’s authority to “remove foreign alien terrorists from US soil and repel a declared invasion.”
While the Trump administration has variously described the Venezuelans as gang members, “monsters,” or “alien terrorists,” Reuters has not independently verified whether they have criminal records or gang affiliations.
The US Department of Homeland Security and the Salvadoran government did not respond to requests for comment, while the State Department declined to comment.
Reuters could not confirm the full extent of the deportation operations or the exact timing of Bukele’s video.
One of the planes in Bukele’s footage bore the tail number N837VA, belonging to Global Crossing Airlines, which had departed on Saturday from an airfield in Texas previously used for deportations, according to FlightRadar24 data.
The plane took off from Harlingen Airport in the afternoon before landing in San Salvador late on Saturday night.
Miami-based Global Crossing, a company used by U.S. immigration authorities to deport migrants across Latin America, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a court filing on Sunday, the Trump administration stated that “some” of the Venezuelans had already been removed from the US before the judge’s order but did not provide further details.
It remains unclear how many individuals had already been deported or whether the administration was conceding that others had been removed after the judge’s ruling.
Axios cited senior administration officials as saying they had aimed to complete the deportations before the judge could intervene. One official reportedly claimed the order did not apply because the flights were already “over international waters.”
Leavitt appeared to support this argument, stating that by the time the judge issued his order, the Venezuelans “had already been removed from US territory.”
However, several legal experts disputed this claim.
“A federal court’s jurisdiction does not stop at the water’s edge,” said Steve Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University’s Law Centre, in a post on the social media app Bluesky. “The question is whether the defendants are subject to the court order, not where the conduct being challenged takes place.”
Peter Markowitz, a professor at Cardozo Law School and an expert in immigration enforcement, stated that the Trump administration’s actions “most certainly violate” the court order.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has challenged Trump’s use of the act, has urged the administration to ensure no migrants were removed in violation of the order, lead ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt told Reuters.
“If anyone was turned over to a foreign government after the court’s order, then we would hope that the United States government would work with that foreign government to get the individuals back,” Gelernt said.
Bukele stated that the 238 menalleged members of the Venezuelan gangwere being transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Centre, a mega-prison capable of holding up to 40,000 inmates, for a one-year period that could be extended.
About The Author
