Trump Team Deports Immigrants Despite Court Order

The Trump administration transferred hundreds of immigrants to Latin America on Saturday, potentially defying a court order barring deportations. While White House officials deny violating the ruling, rights groups are preparing for a legal showdown that could challenge U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest effort to amass executive power.

Trump kicked off his new deportation strategy on Friday by imposing the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which gives the White House extraordinary powers during wartime to detain and remove foreigners who would otherwise be protected under immigration or criminal laws. The declaration has only been used three times in U.S. history: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.

On Saturday, Trump used the Alien Enemies Act to argue that the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang was “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.” He ordered the Justice and Homeland Security departments to remove every Venezuelan migrant aged 14 or older who is part of Tren de Aragua and is not a permanent U.S. resident or citizen.

That same day, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of Washington, D.C., issued an order temporarily banning deportation flights, at the request of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward, which argued that the executive move would allow Trump to expel any Venezuelans from the United States.

Two planes carrying migrants were already headed for El Salvador and Honduras when Boasberg made his decision, and he issued a verbal order for the planes to be turned around. However, the aircrafts did not do so. The Justice Department has since appealed the decision, and White House officials have offered several justifications for why the order was not followed.

Read more in today’s World Brief: White House Deports Hundreds of Immigrants Despite Court Order.