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"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 spokesperson says
Published : 17 Mar 2025, 10:26 AM
The Trump administration has deported alleged members of a Venezuelan gang from the US despite a court order forbidding it from doing so, saying in an extraordinary statement that a judge did not have the authority to block its actions.
The deportation operation followed a move by Judge James Boasberg to block 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 that has been 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 said the court had "no lawful basis" and that federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over how a president conducts foreign affairs.
The turn of events represented a remarkable escalation in Trump's challenge to the US Constitution's system of checks and balances and the independence of the judicial branch of government.
Patrick Eddington, a homeland security and civil liberties legal expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, said that, whatever it might say, 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, saying the statute refers to "hostile acts" perpetrated by another country that are "commensurate to war."
Boasberg said during the hearing that any flights carrying migrants processed under the law should return to the US His written notice hit the case docket at 7:25pm ET (23:25 GMT).
The following day, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele posted footage to the social media site X showing men being hustled off a plane in the dark of night amid a massive security presence.
"Oopsie... Too late," Bukele posted above a headline, "Fed judge orders deportation flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gangbangers to return to the US."
Bukele followed the comment by a laughing-so-hard-I'm-crying emoji. His statement was reposted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also thanked Bukele for his "assistance and friendship."
In her statement, Leavitt said that "the written order and the Administration's actions do not conflict" and that courts have "generally have no jurisdiction" over the president's "powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from US soil and repel a declared invasion."
Although the Trump administration has variously described the Venezuelans as gang members, "monsters," or "alien terrorists," Reuters has not been able to independently verify if the men are gang members or have criminal records.
The US Department of Homeland Security and the Salvadoran government did not respond to requests for comment. The State Department declined to comment.
Reuters could not confirm the full breadth of the deportation operations or the precise timing of Bukele's video.
One of the planes visible in the footage he circulated featured a Global Crossing Airlines aircraft bearing the tail number N837VA, which had taken off on Saturday from an airfield in Texas previously used to deport Venezuelan migrants, according to data maintained by the website FlightRadar24.
FlightRadar24 data shows the plane took off in the afternoon from Harlingen Airport before landing in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, late on Saturday night.
Miami-based Global Crossing, which has been used by US immigration authorities to deport migrants across Latin America, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
In a court filing on Sunday, the Trump administration said that "some" of the Venezuelans had already been removed from the United States prior to the judge's order, but did not provide any further detail.
It was not clear how many people that represented or whether the Trump administration was conceding that others were removed after the judge's order.
Axios quoted senior administration officials as saying they had hoped the deportation operation would be completed before the judge had a chance to weigh in. Axios quoted one official as saying the order didn't count as the flights were already "over international waters."
Leavitt seemed to nod to that idea in her comments, saying that, by the time the judge issued his order, the Venezuelans "had already been removed from US territory."
Several legal experts spoken to by Reuters disagreed.
"A federal court's jurisdiction does *not* stop at the water's edge," said Steve Vladeck, a professor of law at Georgetown University's Law Center posted 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 Cardozo Law School professor and immigration enforcement expert, said the Trump administration's actions "most certainly violate" the court's order.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged Trump's use of the act, has asked the administration to ensure that it has not removed any migrants 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.
The 238 men - alleged members of the Venezuelan gang - were being transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center - a mega-prison that can hold up to 40,000 inmates - for a one-year period that could be renewed, Bukele said.
