Trump Administration Disobeys Court Orders and Deports Hundreds of Immigrants

BY: JAEQWON SUAREZ / MANAGING EDITOR

(Photo via APNews)

The Trump Administration has ordered the deportation of hundreds of immigrants who were allegedly a part of the Venezuelan gang “Tren de Aragua”, disobeying a federal judge who hit pause on the deportation.

Unfortunately, it was too late as one plane began to land in El Salvador and two in Honduras. The temporary pause on the deportation, however, resulted in the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., James Boasberg receiving backlash from lawmakers, other judges, and the White House for going against United States President Donald Trump.

Trump invoked an 18th-century wartime law that would allow non-citizens of the United States to be deported without going before an immigration or federal court judge. The Alien Enemies Act hasn’t been put into effect since World War II.

Judge Boasberg had tried to put a temporary pause on this proclamation last Saturday, March 15, before it was discovered that many planes had already taken off.

Though he ordered the planes to turn around and fly back, neither of the three that were sent off came back with the immigrants, causing turmoil because it is unclear if the orders were simply defied by the Trump administration, or if the ruling was passed after the planes had already landed in El Salvador.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that the White House defied the court order, stating it was after “terrorist [Tren De Aragua] aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.”

On Sunday, March 16, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele released footage of the deportees being processed into the prisons within the country, tweeting beforehand on X, “Oopsie … Too late” and a laughing/crying emoji”.

This situation has brought up problems within the government, with NYU law professor Stephen Gillers exclaiming  that “Now that Congress has shown itself subservient to the wishes of the White House, the judiciary is the last check against the exercise of autocratic power in the president.”

 Gillersalso further states that it could lead to a constitutional crisis if the administration is allowed to defy a court order with impunity.

Judge Baosberg issuing the court order came with many lawmakers and other judges calling for his impeachment from his position.

Leavitt commented on the situation in a statement, explaining that, “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."

While impeachment is a highly unlikely scenario to happen, (two-thirds of the senate would need to agree) simply for speaking against the orders of the president, Judge Baosberg spoke out against this action, stating that it’s not an appropriate response to the current situation.

“Chief Justice John Roberts actually took the rare step of speaking out to say impeachment is not an appropriate response when you disagree with a judge's decision. That's what the appeals process is for, he said. Trump allies are nonetheless proposing impeachment of at least half a dozen other judges who've ruled against Trump or the DOGE team this year,” NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson stated in her conversation with host Mary Kelly.

The federal judge has given the government lawyers until March 25 to decide whether or not they would invoke the state secrets privilege, which would allow the executive branch the ability “to refuse to provide evidence in a court case if they say it could harm national security or foreign relations,” with the evidence in question being the flight details of landing and departing.

This entire situation opens up another problem within the government, and that is the fact that many judges are scared to speak out for fear that something may happen to their families or themselves.

However, Professor Gillers stated, “The question before the country is whether the judges will use their contempt and other powers to resist the elimination of checks and balances in order to protect the rule of law.”