Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday that the Trump administration will “absolutely” continue to carry out deportation flights of alleged gang members using 18th century wartime powers, despite a court order that ordered them stopped.
On Saturday evening, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg told the administration not to deport anyone in its custody using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which had only previously been used three times in history during the War of 1812 and the two World Wars.
Trump issued a proclamation earlier that day invoking the law in response to what he claims is “an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States” by the Venezuelan criminal syndicate Tren de Aragua.
His administration proceeded to fly hundreds of migrants, including men it alleged were members of Tren de Aragua, to El Salvador, where Trump ally and Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele agreed to detain them in his country’s prisons.
Boasberg ordered the flights, which were still in the air, be turned around and issued a temporary restraining order on further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, which allows the president to detain non-citizens in times of war or invasion.
The Trump administration ignored the order and the men were turned over to Salvadorian authorities, who paraded them to be detained in a video posted to social media.
An incredulous Boasberg questioned government lawyers on Monday about why his order was not followed.
The Trump administration claimed that, because his stipulation that flights be turned around was only made verbally and not included in his later written ruling, they had not disobeyed his order.
“While insisting that they are in compliance with the order, they really are flouting that order at every corner,” said Lisa Rubin, a legal correspondent for MSNBC, about the government’s tactics.
Speaking on Fox News on Monday, Bondi claimed Boasberg was “attempting to meddle in national security and foreign affairs, and he can’t do it.“
“What he’s done is an intrusion on the president’s authority,” she told network host Jeanine Pirro. “You know this one federal judge thinks he can control foreign policy for the entire country, and he cannot, and right now we’re evaluating our options.”
Asked if the administration will continue with the deportation flights, Bondi replied: “Absolutely. These are foreign terrorists. The president has identified them and designated them as such and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act.”
Bondi’s remarks echoed Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan, who was even more bullish in his dismissal of the court’s orders when asked about the deportation flights.
“We are not stopping,” he told Fox & Friends on Monday. “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”
Asked what was the next step in the administration’s deportation efforts, he added: “Another flight. Another flight every day.”
Boasberg’s ruling came about in response to a lawsuit launched by legal advocacy groups the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward on behalf of five Venezuelans in immigration detention who fear the Trump administration could falsely label them Tren de Aragua members and deport them using the Alien Enemies Act.
“The Alien Enemies Act’s previous use during wartime — for example, its invocation during World War II to justify the internment of people of Japanese ancestry — has correctly drawn sustained criticism," said the ACLU, in a statement.
“Employing it as a way to evade domestic laws in peacetime is fundamentally wrong.”
