WASHINGTON: A US judge on Monday ordered Trump administration officials to explain whether they violated his order by deporting hundreds of Venezuelan gang members over the weekend, a move that could provoke a constitutional clash between the president and the federal judiciary.
The White House asserted on Sunday that federal courts “have no jurisdiction” over President Donald Trump’s authority to expel foreign enemies under an 18th-century law historically used only in wartime.
Judge James Boasberg in Washington set a hearing for 5 pm ET (2000 GMT) on Monday and instructed the government to provide details on the timing of the flights that transported the Venezuelans to El Salvador, including whether they took off after his order was issued.
The hearing was scheduled in response to an overnight filing by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups seeking clarity on the flights. The rapid developments could signal an escalation in Trump’s challenge to the US Constitution’s system of checks and balances and the independence of the judicial branch of government.
At an emergency hearing on Saturday requested by the ACLU, Boasberg issued a two-week temporary block on Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport 238 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang.
The judge said in court that any flights already en route should return to the US His written order following the hearing appeared in the court’s online docket at 7:26 pm ET (2326 GMT).
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement on Sunday denying the administration had violated Boasberg’s order, while also questioning his power to issue it. “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft ... full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from US soil,” Leavitt said.
The Alien Enemies Act gives the president the wartime authority to deport non-citizens whose primary allegiance is to a foreign power. It has been invoked just three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and most recently World War II, when it was used to justify the mass internment of people of Japanese, German and Italian descent.
On Monday, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said the flights were already in international airspace when the judge’s orders came and that more flights would continue.
“Once you’re outside the border, you know, it is what it is. But they’re in international waters, already on the way south, close to landing. You know what? ... We did what we had to do,” he told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” programme.
But legal experts said the plane’s location in the air was irrelevant. “A federal court’s jurisdiction does *not* stop at the water’s edge,” Steve Vladeck, a professor of law at Georgetown University’s Law Centre, posted on the social media app Bluesky. “The question is whether the *defendants* are subject to the court order, not *where* the conduct being challenged takes place.”
The White House said on Monday it was “wholly confident” of winning in court after a judge ordered a hearing over the explusion of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang under wartime legislation.
“This administration acted within the confines of the law,” President Donald Trump´s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “We are wholly confident that we are going to win this case in court.”