Trump has invoked the 1788 Alien Enemies Act to summarily (without trial) deport Venezuelan citizens allegedly belonging to the Tren De Aragua criminal gang that deals with sex trafficking, drug dealing and human smuggling.
This obscure act has
been used only three times before – during the War of 1812 and during the two
world wars. It was last used to round up and imprison Japanese Americans during
WWII. The act applies only to citizens of enemy nations at war with the United
States.
A lawsuit led by the
ACLU resulted in Judge James E Boasberg issuing a temporary order on Saturday
halting deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg ordered two flights
which were already in the air to turn around.
The Trump administration
immediately filed an appeal and the deportations were still carried but routed to
El Salvador rather than Venezuela. TCinLA pointed out (in all caps) that it is
against U.S. law for U.S. prisoners to be jailed in foreign facilities.
Trump is using these
people as a trial balloon expecting little pushback for members of such a vile
criminal gang. Once he has this precedent, he could then apply it to other
groups. The real issue here isn’t the alleged gang members, it’s the rule of
law.
Press Secretary Karoline
Leavitt said “If the Democrats want to argue in favor or turning a plane
full of rapists, murderers and gangsters back to the United States, that’s a
fight we are more than happy to take.”
Trump’s Attorney General
Pam Bondi is playing along, accusing the judge of “[disregarding] well
established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and [putting] the
public and law enforcement at risk”.
The most chilling part
of Bondi’s statement is the implication that it is well established, with the
support of the Attorney General, that President Trump’s authority exceeds
existing U.S. laws.
TCinLA concludes that if
Trump gets away with deporting these people, then he can do it to any of his
perceived enemies. “The Rule of Law no longer exists and the American Republic
is over”.
Update March 17
afternoon
Judge Boasberg set a
hearing for 5pm Monday to hear why the Trump Administration (TA) ignored his
order temporarily blocking the deportation flights. The Department of Justice
(DOJ) for the TA filed to cancel the hearing but this was denied by the Judge.
The written report Boasberg requested for Monday morning arrived less than two
hours before the hearing. The DOJ lawyers were instructed not to answer for
national security reasons but Boasberg overruled that citing a 1953 national
security case in which the judge requested and received documentation.
One of the DOJ’s
arguments was that the order to turn the planes around was only in his oral
statements not the written order. Boasberg was not impressed calling it “a heck
of a stretch”. Another was that the judge’s jurisdiction did not extend to the
planes when they were over the “Gulf of America”. Drumming up public support
for the deportation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked on Fox News “How can a judge sitting in Washington DC
have jurisdiction over three planes filled of criminals flying over the Gulf of
America?” The judge however denied that the powers of a court order over US
officials end in American airspace saying “A
government plane on governmental business is not in a law-free zone”.
Earlier Monday the TA
sent a letter to the United States court of appeals to remove Boasberg from the
case.
The Monday hearing ended
with Boasberg ordering the DOJ to tell him “by noon on Tuesday exactly what
time it believes his order stopping the deportation flights went into effect on
Saturday”.
Stay tuned for further
updates.
Sources:
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/15/trump-deportation-lawsuit-00232121
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-16-2025
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-a7d
https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/poking-around-while-facing-week-eight
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