Trump's Deportation Push Tests Courts' Ability to Check Presidential Power

Robert McWhirter, a constitutional law and civil rights attorney, talked about President Trump's expulsion of hundreds of migrants and a brewing conflict with the courts.

President Donald Trump’s administration is being accused of defying the judiciary after swiftly deporting hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members in an assertion of sweeping power to pursue hard-line immigration policies.

Two groups suing the administration alleged in a court filing Monday that the government may have violated a federal judge’s order halting the expulsions. That judge set a hearing for Monday afternoon, when he ordered government lawyers to provide answers. The White House said its deportations didn’t violate any court orders.

The legal clash, which ultimately could land at the Supreme Court, quickly emerged as a test of the ability of the judiciary to act as a check on Trump’s agenda.

A federal appeals court is set to sort out whether Trump exceeded his presidential power by relying on a law that previously had been used only when the country was at war. Filings in the case are due Tuesday.

The drama began when five Venezuelans filed a lawsuit early Saturday morning in anticipation that Trump would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Trump had signed a presidential proclamation to put the act into effect on Friday, but didn’t release it until Saturday afternoon.

n response, US District Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge in Washington, issued an order to temporarily stop the deportation of the five Venezuelans. In the afternoon, he halted use of the law to deport any alleged Tren de Aragua members. But by then planes had already taken off.

Boasberg also orally ordered the flights to turn around, according to the transcript. His comments came between between 6:45 and 6:48 p.m., the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward said in court papers filed Monday morning.

“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg said. “However that’s accomplished, whether turning around a plane or not embarking anyone on the plane or those people covered by this on the plane, I leave to you. But this is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”

After ordering the planes to turn around, the judge said that “if planes have already landed and discharged their occupants,” then “I don’t have jurisdiction to require their return.”

The judge’s written order, which appeared on the public docket at 7:26 p.m., made no mention of directing the planes to return to the US.

Eventually the planes did arrive in El Salvador, according to a three-minute video released by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. The Venezuelans are now being held at a terrorism confinement center under a deal that Secretary of State Marco Rubio brokered with Bukele.

In court papers Sunday, the Trump administration said that “some gang members subject to removal under the proclamation had already been removed from United States territory” before Boasberg issued his order.

The ACLU and Democracy Forward said that phrasing suggests the government treated Boasberg’s order as applying only to people who were still on US soil or in US airspace at the time of the written order. “If that is how the government proceeded, it was a blatant violation of the court’s order,” the groups argued.

White House border czar Tom Homan told reporters Monday that the administration “abided by the court’s decision.” But he also acknowledge that at least one plane was still in the air.

“The plane was already over international waters with a plane full of terrorists and significant public safety threats,” Homan said. He said 238 Tren de Aragua members and 21 MS13 gang members were deported.

The US has not publicly detailed how it identified the Venezuelans as members of the Tren de Aragua gang that’s been designated a foreign terrorist organization.

--------

Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube

Weekdays 7am-6pm ET

Follow us on X

Subscribe to our Podcasts:

Bloomberg Daybreak

Bloomberg Surveillance

Bloomberg Intelligence

Balance of Power

Bloomberg Businessweek

Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app:

Apple CarPlay

Android Auto

Visit our YouTube channels:

Bloomberg Podcasts

Bloomberg Television

Bloomberg Originals