WASHINGTON – A legal and political showdown began Monday after the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador over the weekend, in apparent defiance of court orders, as well as a Brown University kidney doctor.
Government lawyers refused Monday to provide a federal judge any information about flights that deported hundreds of Venezuelans under national security grounds after the judge had temporarily blocked the flights. The judge demanded a written explanation for the refusal by noon Tuesday and the American Civil Liberties Union warned that “we’re getting very close to” a “constitutional crisis” due to the Trump administration’s actions. .
The administration says the Venezuelans are members of a gang called Tren de Aragua, and that they are being deported on national security concerns. Lawyers for the Venezuelans say they have not been given due process.
Separately, the administration deported Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen and Rhode Island doctor, on Friday despite the fact that she holds a valid H1B visa as an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.
Government lawyers argued Monday they complied with a judge’s order blocking deportation flights of Venezuelans but the judge remained skeptical of their reasoning.
Federal Chief Judge for Washington, D.C. James Boasberg temporarily blocked the flights on Saturday – through an oral order and then a written one – under President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. But lawyers for the Venezuelans said two flights took off after the oral order.
A Justice Department lawyer, Abhishek Kambli, told Boasberg no flights took off after his written order. If the flights had crossed into international territory when Boasberg’s written order appeared, he no longer had jurisdiction, Kambli said.
“We believe we complied with the order,” Kambli said.“That’s not a call that can be made in a split-second,” he added, referring to turning a plane around in mid-air.
Boasberg said he maintained jurisdiction of deportees in U.S. custody beyond U.S. territory. He said if the government disagreed with his ruling, it could appeal, which it did. He remained skeptical that the government couldn’t turn planes around if his order coincided with the flights.
“That’s a heck of a stretch, I think,” Boasberg said.
Government lawyers were ordered to provide more information about the flights by noon Eastern Tuesday. But Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union representing the Venezuelans, suggested the government hadn’t followed the judge’s order.
“There’s been a lot of talk during the last several weeks about a constitutional crisis, throwing that term around,” Gelernt said. “I think we’re getting very close to it.”
−Bart Jansen
Government lawyers refused Monday to provide a federal judge any information about flights that deported hundreds of Venezuelans under national security grounds, but the judge who temporarily blocked the flights demanded a written explanation for the refusal by noon Tuesday.
Chief U.S. Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked deportation flights Saturday – first orally and then in writing – of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act. But lawyers representing the deportees said two flights took off for Honduras and El Salvador between the oral and written arguments, suggesting the government defied the judge’s order.
A Justice Department lawyer, Abhishek Kambli, told Boasberg no flights took off after his written order. He said Trump has sole control over military flights like any carrying deportees. He said he couldn’t share information in open court because of national security and delicate foreign negotiations.
“Those are operational issues and I’m not at liberty to provide any information about the flights,” Kambli said. “It is based on national security concerns.”
Boasberg disagreed. He said his oral order should count as much as a written one. He said he retained jurisdiction over deportees in U.S. custody even if they’ve left U.S. territory. And he said he routinely deals in national security secrets so he can hear about the flights.
“The inquiry here is have they obeyed my order,” Boasberg said.
Boasberg ordered the government to provide written information by noon Tuesday about how many flights left Saturday under the Alien Enemies Act and when they took off, how many deportees they carried and where they landed and when.
−Bart Jansen
The White House posted a video on the social media platform X of men being handcuffed and manacled while the rock song “Closing Time” by Semisonic plays in the background.
The post says, “You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here @CBP.” In the background, the song plays, “Closing Time. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.”
The 17-second video ends with footage of the two, wearing sweats, ascending the stairs to a plane, ostensibly to deport them out of the United States.
Later Monday, an X account purportedly from Semisonic posted that it did not “authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song ‘Closing Time’ in any way.”
“And no, they didn’t ask,” the@SemisonicBand post added. “The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.”
The post follows an earlier controversial video posted by the White House on Feb. 18, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight,” with the sound and video of chains and manacles being laid out side by side on the ground while a nearby jet’s engines whine. An official from the Department of Homeland Security’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) stands guard.
ASMR, the acronym for “autonomous sensory meridian response,” is usually used to describe a pleasing physical sensation that is triggered by certain sounds. ASMR has become a popular genre of videos on X, TikTok and other social media platforms.
Some civil liberty experts criticized that Feb. 18 post as being cruel and dehumanizing.
−Josh Meyer
Trump administration lawyers told a federal judge his oral order temporarily blocking the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans was unenforceable and didn’t count until he posted a written ruling later.
Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked the government Saturday from deporting Venezuelans who were allegedly members of the crime gang Tren de Aragua while the litigation was argued. But flights were already in the air heading to Honduras and El Salvador when he ruled.
Government lawyers led by Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a filing Monday the planes were already outside U.S. territory and so not subject to Boasberg’s ruling.
“Contrary to Plaintiffs’ assertion, an oral directive is not enforceable as an injunction,” said government lawyers, citing a 1990 decision in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “A judge who proclaims ‘I enjoin you’ and does not follow up with an injunction has done nothing,” and, if the judge “does not record an injunction or declaratory judgment on a separate document, the defendant is under no judicial compulsion.”
Lawyers for the Venezuelans said the refusal to turn the planes around looked like blatant defiance of the judge’s order.
−Bart Jansen
A federal judge refused to drop his Monday hearing into whether the Trump administration defied his order temporarily blocking the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans, after government lawyers argued neither the judge nor the migrants had the power to stop the removals.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and top aides urged Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg not to hold the hearing and “de-escalate the grave incursions on Executive Branch authority that have already arisen.”
But Boasberg rejected the request without elaborating.
The government lawyers argued that Boasberg lacked jurisdiction to hear the dispute because the president has the ultimate power to conduct foreign affairs and negotiate with foreign governments to transfer deportees abroad.
“Plaintiffs cannot use these proceedings to interfere with the President’s national-security and foreign-affairs authority, and the Court lacks jurisdiction to do so,” the government lawyers wrote. “Once the terrorists had been removed from the United States, any decision by the President to take such actions pursuant to independent constitutional authority is therefore not a violation of the Court’s orders in all events.”
−Bart Jansen
The U.S. State Department refuted a report on Monday that it had drafted a list of countries whose nationals President Donald Trump should consider for a travel ban.
“First of all there is no list. What people are looking at over these last several days is not a list that exists here that is being acted on,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said at a press briefing.
“There is a review, as we know through the president’s executive order, for us to look at the nature of what’s going to help keep America safer, in dealing with the issue of visas and who’s allowed into the country. But what has been touted as something that is an item through the State Department, just simply isn’t the case.”
Trump’s executive order set a March 21 deadline for recommendations on travel restrictions to the U.S. for countries whose nationals the administration deems potential security threats.
As many as 43 countries were reportedly under consideration for full or partial travel bans, according to the New York Times. Reuters reported on a memo of 41 counties that included Afghanistan, Cuba and Iran.
– Francesca Chambers
The Trump administration paid El Salvador $6 million to accept 261 alleged Venezuelan gang members deported from the United States over the weekend, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
Leavitt called the sum of money “pennies on the dollar” compared to the cost to house the deported members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in maximum-security prisons in the U.S.
During a briefing with reporters, Leavitt defended the administration invoking the seldom-used 1798 Alien Enemies Act to immediately deport the Venezuelan nationals without due process. The move came despite a federal judge blocking the deportation Saturday and ordering deportation planes be turned around.
Leavitt said the Trump administration complied with the judge’s order, arguing the Venezuelans were deported before the judge’s written order was released. But when pressed about a verbal order from the same judge that came earlier, Leavitt cited legal “questions” whether a verbal order carries the same weight as a written order.
–Joey Garrison
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that deportation flights taking Venezuelans to El Salvador on Saturday took off before a judge’s written order blocking the move. But when pressed about the judge’s earlier verbal order, Leavitt said there are legal disputes about whether a judge’s verbal order carries the same weight as a written order.
“All of the planes subject to the written order of this judge departed U.S. soil – U.S. territory – before the judge’s written order,” Leavitt said. “There is actually questions about whether a verbal order carries the same weight as a legal order. Our lawyers are determined to ask and answer those questions in court.”
Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington had ordered the planes orally about 6:45 p.m. to turn around if they had already taken off. His written order was posted about 7:26 p.m.
Lawyers for the Venezuelans alleged that letting the flights continue to El Salvador “blatantly” defied the judge’s order. He scheduled a 5 p.m. hearing on the matter.
“The administration will of course be happily answering all of those questions that the judge poses in court later today,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt insisted the administration followed the law and the judge’s order.
“This administration acted within the confines of the law, again within the president’s constitutional authority and under the authority granted to him under the Alien Enemies Act,” Leavitt said. “We are quite confident in that. We are wholly confident that we are going to win this case in court.”
–Bart Jansen
The White House posted a video on the social media platform X of men being handcuffed and manacled while the rock song “Closing Time” by Semisonic plays in the background.
The post says, “You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here @CBP.” In the background, the song plays, “Closing Time. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.”
The 17-second video ends with footage of the two, wearing sweats, ascending the stairs to a plane, ostensibly to deport them out of the United States.
It follows an earlier controversial video posted by the White House on Feb. 18, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight,” with the sound and video of chains and manacles being laid out side by side on the ground while a nearby jet’s engines whine. An official from the Department of Homeland Security’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) stands guard.
ASMR, the acronym for “autonomous sensory meridian response,” is usually used to describe a pleasing physical sensation that is triggered by certain sounds. ASMR has become a popular genre of videos on X, TikTok and other social media platforms.
Some civil liberty experts criticized that Feb. 18 post as being cruel and dehumanizing.
–Josh Meyer
Rhode Island physician Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant doctor for Brown Medicine, was deported last week after border officials discovered “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders on her cell phone, according to a Monday government court filing reported on by USA TODAY Network’s the Providence Journal.
Later on Monday, Judge Leo Sorokin ordered that the filing be sealed until he reviews a motion to restrict access to it.
Customs and border officers canceled Alawieh’s visa after discovering the photos and videos, questioning her, and concluding her true intentions in the U.S. couldn’t be determined, according to the Providence Journal’s reporting on the filing.
The government alleged that Alawieh told border officers she followed the religious and spiritual teachings of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a September Israeli airstrike, but not his politics.
Alawieh attended a commemoration for Nasrallah while also visiting family during her recent two-week trip to Lebanon, according to the court documents. Alawieh had deleted photos of Nasrallah and Iranian cleric Ali Khamenei from her phone shortly before her return flight to Boston, according to a border officer’s affidavit. Alawieh allegedly said she deleted them because she didn’t want to be perceived as supporting Hezbollah, and that the Khamenei-related content had to do with religion, not politics.
Yara Chehab, who has sued to challenge Alawieh’s deportation and is identified as Alawieh’s cousin in the lawsuit, alleged in an earlier court filing that Alawieh was held at the Boston airport without justification. A lawyer for Chehab didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Contributing: Tom Mooney, USA TODAY Network
– Aysha Bagchi
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed that his country incarcerated “the first of 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua”, who his political ally, President Donald Trump, flew to his country from the United States.
The prisoners were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year that is “renewable,” Bukele said in a post on the social media platform X.
Bukele’s post was accompanied by action-movie-style video of manacled men being led off planes with their heads held downward by heavily armed officials, hurriedly forced onto buses and taken to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center. There, hooded jail officials quickly shaved their heads and faces, took their names and put them in large community cells.
“The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us,” Bukele said in his post. “Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable.”
Bukele said the U.S. has also sent to his country 23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice, “including two ringleaders.”
“One of them is a member of the criminal organization’s highest structure,” Bukele wrote. “This will help us finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors.”
–Josh Meyer
Four Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized President Donald Trump for claiming a wartime power under the Alien Enemies Act that deprives immigrants of due process in the courts.
Sens. Alex Padilla of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Peter Welch of Vermont said Trump’s use of the 1798 law for the first time since World War II was “another unlawful and brazen power grab.”
“Let’s be clear: we are not at war, and immigrants are not invading our country,” the senators said in a statement. “Furthermore, courts determine whether people have broken the law — not a president acting alone, and not immigration agents picking and choosing who gets imprisoned or deported.”
–Bart Jansen
White House Border Czar Tom Homan told reporters at the White House on Monday that the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador should be a cause for celebration.
“We removed terrorists. That should be a celebration. We removed terrorists from this country,” he said. “I stand by with what the president did.”
Asked by a reporter how the administration determined if an individual was a terrorist, Homan said: “Through various investigations.”
He then said the individuals’ social media as well as criminal records here and abroad had also been used
“I stand by everything we did this weekend and I think the president is keeping his promise to the American people,” he said.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
President Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said Monday he plans to continue the administration’s mass deportations despite court rulings and injunctions that have tried to shut them down.
The Trump administration has deported nearly 300 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act despite Chief U.S. Judge James Boasberg’s order in Washington, D.C., blocking the flights under the 1798 law last wielded during World War II.
Boasberg’s order Saturday came after Trump issued a proclamation, which he had signed the day before, targeting Tren de Aragua members for immediate deportations under the 18th century law. Trump‘s order said the gang “continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens.”
But on Monday, a defiant Homan told Fox News that he was pushing forward with the effort.
“We made a promise to the American people. The President Trump has made a promise to American people. We’re going to make this country safe again,” Homan said.
“We’re not stopping,” Homan added. “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”
–Josh Meyer
Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg scheduled a 5 p.m. hearing Monday over allegations the Trump administration defied his order blocking the deportation of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg blocked the deportations during an emergency hearing Saturday evening. But two flights were already carrying nearly 300 Venezuelans accused of being members of the criminal gang Tren de Aragua to Honduras and El Salvador.
Government lawyers said in a filing that “some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation has already been removed from United States territory.”
Lawyers for the Venezuelans quoted Boasberg in a filing saying the flights should have turned around if they were already in the air. The lawyer said the government’s timeline for the flights appeared to be “a blatant violation of the Court’s Order.”
–Bart Jansen
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston postponed his Monday hearing into Rasha Alawieh’s deportation, to give the government more time to file their arguments.
Sorokin had ordered the government Friday not to deport Alawieh, but the Brown University kidney specialist was flown back to Lebanon anyway. Customs and Border Protection officials said in court records they found pictures of Hezbollah leaders on her phone.
Alawieh’s lawyers asked judge for Monday’s hearing to consider whether the government willfully defied his order. But CBP officials replied that she “had already departed the United States” and at “no time would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court’s order.”
Sorokin gave the government until March 24 to bolster its arguments and Alawieh, who has new lawyers, to file additional arguments by March 31. Sorokin hasn’t set a new date for a hearing yet.
–Bart Jansen
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Michael Kagan, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, said Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is likely to be challenged on a number of legal and constitutional grounds stemming from who it targets, how it would be enforced and how gangs and drug traffickers could be shown to constitute an “invasion of the United States.”
“Obviously it’s alarming, just because it has been so rarely invoked, and when it has been invoked, it has often been instances that we later considered to be nationally shameful, like the Japanese incarceration other people who we later realized actually were not enemies at all,” said Kagan, who also teaches international human rights and immigration.
“Right now, we can only speculate” Kagan said, until the Trump administration releases the underlying legal arguments and operational details.
Specifically, “Who is he going to name who’s the enemy is the key question. Is it going to be all Venezuelans or all Mexicans, or is it members of a particular gang? How’s this going to be used in an individual case? Who will be subject to it? This obviously raises some really severe civil liberties problems and the potential for guilt by association.”
–Josh Meyer
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The contents of Rasha Alawieh’s cellphone apparently led to the Brown University assistant professor’s deportation Friday, according to court records filed for a Monday hearing about whether her removal violated a judge’s order.
Customs and Border Protection officials said they found “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders on the Lebanese citizen’s cellphone, according to court records. Officials also found “various other Hezbollah militants” in the deleted photo folder of her cell phone, according to court records.
“With the discovery of these photographs and videos CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” according to documents. “As such CBP canceled her visa and deemed Dr. Alawieh inadmissible to the United States.”
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston ordered Friday that Alawieh not be deported without giving the court 48 hours notice. Despite his order, Alawieh was flown back to Lebanon on
Despite his order, the Brown Medicine kidney doctor and Lebanese citizen departed for Paris Friday evening. Alawieh arrived back in Lebanon Sunday morning, said a friend and colleague.
Hilton Beckham, the assistant commissioner of public affairs for Customs and Border Protection, issued a statement Sunday saying foreign citizens bear the burden of establishing their admissibility into the United States.
“Our CBP officers adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats, using rigorous screening, vetting, strong law enforcement partnerships, and keen inspectional skills to keep threats out of the country,” Beckham said. “CBP is committed to protecting the United States from national security threats.”
–Tom Mooney, Providence Journal
In a filing early Monday, lawyers representing the Venezuelans laid out a timeline for their deportation flights that seemed to come after a judge temporarily blocked their removal while the case is litigated.
On Saturday morning, Chief U.S. Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the deportation of five Venezuelans who challenged President Donald Trump’s invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg held a 5 p.m. hearing where he expanded the order to cover all Venezuelans under the act that targets alleged members of the crime gang Tren de Aragua.
Two deportation flights left Harlingen, Texas: at 5:26 p.m. Eastern headed to Comayagua, Honduras, and at 5:45 p.m. Eastern headed to San Salvador, El Salvador, according to a filing by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward Foundation. The flights landed at 7:36 p.m. Eastern and 8:02 p.m. Eastern, respectively.
Boasberg’s oral order to turn around planes headed to other countries came between 6:45 p.m. and 6:48 p.m. Eastern, according to the lawyers.
Boasberg said during the hearing that “any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.”
Government lawyers said in a filing Sunday the five initial plaintiffs weren’t deported. The filing said Boasberg’s order was published in the online court docket at 7:26 p.m. Eastern and that “some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation has already been removed from United States territory” before the second, oral order.
The lawyers asked Boasberg to review whether the government complied with his order.
“If that is how the government proceeded, it was a blatant violation of the Court’s Order,” the lawyers wrote.
–Bart Jansen
President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has been linked to contract killings, kidnapping and organized crime.
The law says a president can invoke it during “a declared war” with a foreign nation or government, or when “any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted or threatened” against the United States. The law had previously been invoked only three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
Congress hasn’t declared a war. But Trump told reporters while flying from Florida back to Washington on Sunday that he considered this a “a time of war” because foreign criminals entered the country without legal authorization during previous administrations.
“This is a time of war, because Biden allowed millions of people, many of them criminals, many of them at the highest level, they emptied jails out,” Trump said. “That’s an invasion. They invaded our country.”
“In that sense, this is war,” Trump added. “In many respects, it’s more dangerous than war because, you know, in war, they have uniforms. You know who you’re shooting at. You know you’re going after.”
–Bart Jansen
Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg initially ordered the administration Saturday not to deport five Venezuelans who were fighting their removal from the United States. He later expanded the order to cover all Venezuelans being deported under the Alien Enemies Act.
But flight logs suggest at least two deportation flights bound for Honduras and El Salvador might have taken off or landed after Boasberg issued his second oral order.
The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to halt Boasberg’s order while the case is litigated. The appeals court asked for written arguments Tuesday from the government and Wednesday from Venezuelans. Boasberg postponed a Monday hearing until Friday because of the appeal.
Government lawyers said in a filing Sunday that “some gang members” had “already been removed from United States territory” under Trump’s proclamation and before the court’s second order.
Lawyers representing the Venezuelans from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Democracy Forward Foundation asked Boasberg in a filing early Monday to review whether the government obeyed his order.
Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who has represented whistleblowers against the Trump administration and whose security clearance Trump rescinded, said the potential defiance of a court order moves the country closer to a “constitutional crisis.”
–Bart Jansen
