| March 17, 2025 08:22:36 AM |
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| March 17, 2025 08:22:36 AM |
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The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members. We take a look at the situation that evolved over the weekend.
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President Donald Trump waves from his limousine as he leaves Trump International Golf Club, Saturday, March 15, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) |
Trump administration deports hundreds even as judge orders removals stopped |
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg’s Saturday order temporarily blocked the deportations, but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air, headed for El Salvador and Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but he did not include the directive in his written order. Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said that Boasberg’s verbal directive to turn around the planes was not technically part of his final order but that the Trump administration clearly violated the “spirit” of it.
In a statement Sunday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt countered that notion, saying the "administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” which she said "had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.” The acronym refers to the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump targeted in an unusual proclamation released Saturday. The Trump administration has not identified the immigrants deported, provided any evidence they are in fact members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crimes in the United States. It also sent two top members of the MS-13 gang to El Salvador who had been arrested in the United States.
The Trump administration said the president signed the proclamation contending Tren de Aragua was invading the U.S. on Friday night but didn’t announce it until Saturday afternoon. Immigration lawyers said that, late Friday, they noticed Venezuelans who otherwise couldn’t be deported under immigration law being moved to Texas for deportation flights. They began to file lawsuits to halt the transfers. The Department of Justice has appealed Boasberg’s decision. Another hearing is scheduled on Friday. Read more. |
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Of note:
The immigrants were deported after Trump’s declaration of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has been used only three times in U.S. history, most recently to justify the detention of Japanese-American civilians during World War II. |
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Trump administration ramps up rhetoric targeting courts amid legal setbacks |
As the courts deliver a series of setbacks to his dramatic attempt to change the federal government without congressional approval, Trump’s supporters are echoing some of the rhetoric and actions that elsewhere have preceded attacks on the judiciary.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted last week on X: “Under the precedents now being established by radical rogue judges, a district court in Hawaii could enjoin troop movements in Iraq. Judges have no authority to administer the executive branch. Or to nullify the results of a national election.” Trump’s supporters in Congress have raised the specter of impeaching judges who have ruled against the administration. Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump backer whose Department of Government Efficiency has ended up in the crosshairs of much of the litigation, has regularly called for removing judges on his social media site, X. On Sunday, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Chuck Grassley, reacted furiously to a Washington judge’s order briefly halting deportations under the 18th century wartime law Trump invoked hours earlier. Activists contend it’s the administration that’s increasing the odds of a crisis.
“They don’t like what they’re seeing in the courts, and this is setting up what may very well be a constitutional crisis about the independence of the judiciary,” said Heidi Beirich, founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Read more. |
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Of note:
Despite the rhetoric, the Trump administration has so far not openly defied a court order, and the dozens of cases filed against its actions have followed a regular legal course. His administration has made no moves to seek removal of justices or push judicial reforms through the Republican-controlled Congress. Even if no such firm moves are underway, the rhetoric has not gone unnoticed within the judiciary. Two Republican-appointed senior judges last week warned about the rising danger of the judiciary being targeted. |
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Democrats confront limits of their minority power after bruising shutdown vote |
Senate Democrats were grim Friday as they left Washington after a brutal 10-week stretch that consistently showed the limits of their power in the minority – and culminated with a deeply personal rupture over how to best counter Trump.
Internal dissension burst into the open Thursday evening after Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced he would vote to move forward on the Trump-backed spending measure, ensuring its eventual passage even though Democrats said it would give Trump broad discretion on decisions that are traditionally left to Congress. The intraparty backlash was unusually swift as activists and House Democrats who had uniformly opposed the bill heaped criticism on Schumer. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Schumer’s New York colleague, joined other top party members in a statement saying, “We will not be complicit.”
The heat on Schumer came after several other Democratic setbacks in the dizzying weeks since Trump’s inauguration, and as Republicans have only become more unified under the president’s second term, confirming Trump’s Cabinet swiftly and denying Democrats the needed votes to block nominees they saw as extreme. Read more.
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Of note:
Reaction to Schumer’s decision was mixed. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who voted not to move forward on the spending measure, wouldn’t answer when asked by reporters if she still has confidence in the Democratic leader. But Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, who voted to move forward, said Schumer “is showing leadership” by taking a stand. |
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"Peace to the world", a painting created by Russian artist Alexei Sergienko showing a combination of faces of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, is on display at the Sergienko's gallery in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) |
- Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to speak Tuesday.
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