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A federal judge in Washington plans to press the Trump administration at a hearing on Monday about whether it has violated an order he issued barring officials from removing any detained noncitizens \u2014 including several suspected Venezuelan gang members \u2014 from the country with little or no due process.<\/p>\n
The hearing was scheduled by the judge, James E. Boasberg, even as President Trump\u2019s so-called border czar, Tom Homan, made defiant remarks on television, indicating that the administration planned to continue such deportations despite the court\u2019s order \u2014 an action that could thrust the country into a constitutional crisis, pitting one of the coequal branches of the government against another.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not stopping,\u201d Mr. Homan said Monday, during an appearance on Fox News. \u201cI don\u2019t care what the judges think, I don\u2019t care what the left thinks. We\u2019re coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Homan defended the administration\u2019s decision to fly more than 200 immigrants to El Salvador over the weekend, including individuals the government identified as members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. He added that the public should expect more deportation flights \u201cevery day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The legal battle over the removal of the immigrants was the latest \u2014 and perhaps most serious \u2014 flashpoint yet between federal courts, which have sought to curb many of Mr. Trump\u2019s recent executive actions, and an administration that has repeatedly come close to openly refusing to comply with judicial orders.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump himself expressed skepticism about a ruling last week by a federal judge in California ordering the administration to rehire thousands of fired probationary workers. Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday night that the judge was \u201cputting himself in the position of the president of the United States, who was elected by close to 80 million votes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hearing in the deported immigrant case was scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday in Federal District Court in Washington. Judge Boasberg said that lawyers for the Justice Department should be prepared to tell him where the flights to El Salvador were \u2014 on the ground in the United States, in the air, or already overseas \u2014 at the time he handed down his order.<\/p>\n
In issuing a temporary restraining order against the removals this weekend, Judge Boasberg said any planes carrying the Venezuelan migrants had to return to the United States \u201chowever that\u2019s accomplished \u2014 whether turning around the plane or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House has denied that it violated the order, arguing the deportation flights departed U.S. soil before Judge Boasberg submitted his written order.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In a court filing early Monday, lawyers for some of the deported Venezuelans noted that the White House had claimed that Judge Boasberg\u2019s order was published in written form at 7:26 p.m. on Saturday, ignoring that he had issued an oral version of the same decision around 6:45 p.m., which \u201cunambiguously directed the government to turn around any planes carrying individuals being removed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Monday there were \u201cquestions about whether a verbal order carries the same weight as a legal order, as a written order, and our lawyers are determined to ask and answer those questions in court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump administration officials have also suggested that Judge Boasberg\u2019s order did not apply to planes that were already over international waters when the written decision was handed down \u2014 a position that the lawyers for the deported immigrants sharply disagreed with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not the planes had cleared U.S. territory,\u201d they wrote, \u201cthe U.S. retained custody at least until the planes landed and the individuals were turned over to foreign governments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Leavitt told reporters on Monday that the more than 260 deported immigrants included 137 people removed through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an obscure wartime law that the administration has claimed it is using to summarily deport those identified as members of the transnational Tren de Aragua gang. Another 101 were Venezuelans deported under normal immigration proceedings. Ms. Leavitt said another 23 were members of the Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The United States is paying El Salvador $6 million to take in the deportees, Ms. Leavitt told reporters.<\/p>\n
Ms. Leavitt on Monday said the group of deportees was responsible for a variety of violent crimes, including murder and sexual abuse, but the administration had not released extensive details about each deportee, and had not provided evidence of their gang affiliations. Ms. Leavitt did not commit to releasing the name of each person deported through the Alien Enemies Act.<\/p>\n
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also accused the Trump administration of \u201canother unlawful and brazen power grab\u201d in proceeding with the deportations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot allow Trump to flout the rules and due process,\u201d the Senate Democrats said in a statement on Monday. \u201cAll of us, including the courts, must continue to hold this administration accountable, and prevent the Trump administration from taking us down a dark and dangerous road.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deportations to El Salvador were just one example of administration actions that conflicted with the positions of the judicial branch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n