Editor's note: This headline has been updated.
President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, on Monday dismissed concerns about federal judges and defended the administration’s mass deportations despite a court order to halt them—but one judge appears ready to force the administration to reconsider.
The New York Times reports that Homan’s “defiant remarks” indicated “that the administration planned to continue such deportations despite the court’s order — an action that could thrust the country into a constitutional crisis, pitting one of the coequal branches of the government against another.”
Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Saturday blocked the Trump administration’s mass deportations to El Salvador and Honduras of hundreds of alleged gang members, under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which was to be used only during times of “declared” war.
After Judge Boasberg issued a verbal order “temporarily blocking the deportations,” the Associated Press reported, “lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not.”
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Axios, citing two senior officials, reported that the “Trump administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn’t apply.”
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the judge’s order had “no lawful basis” because the plane was not in U.S. airspace.
The administration claimed the verbal order to turn the planes around was not included in Judge Boasberg’s written order that followed. Some are accusing the administration of intentionally ignoring a legal order from a federal judge.
Monday morning on “Fox and Friends,” border czar Homan defended the deportations, and declared: “We made a promise to American people the President Trump has made a promise to American people, we’re gonna make this country safe again.”
“I wake up every morning loving my job because I work for the greatest president in the history of my life and we’re gonna make this country safe again,” Homan told co-host Lawrence Jones.
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“I’m proud to be a part of this administration. We’re not stopping,” he declared.
“I don’t care what the judges think, I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming,” Homan warned.
Jones declared his support for Homan’s actions, telling the former Trump acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “I just love seeing you going through these protesters, just crunching on the apple as their liberal tears just flood the hallway.”
Meanwhile, Judge Boasberg ordered attorneys for the Trump administration back into court, for a Monday afternoon hearing, and gave them questions they must answer, according to MSNBC legal contributor Adam Klasfeld.
“1) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation took off after either the
Court’s written or oral Orders were issued;
2) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation landed after either the
Court’s written or oral Orders were issued;
3) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation was still in the air after
either the Court’s written or oral Orders were issued; and
4) whether custody of any individuals subject to the Proclamation was transferred to a
foreign country after either the Court’s written or oral Orders were issued.”
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pointing to a reportstating that Trump is using “the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, granting himself sweeping powers,” wrote: “Trump is defying court orders and abusing wartime powers to deport people with no due process. He’s using the law that put Italian, German, and Japanese immigrants in detention camps during World War II. We are not at war. Donald Trump is not a king. He is not above the law.”
CNN’s Elie Honig and Dana Bash discussed the issue Monday afternoon. Honig said in theory the Trump administration’s decision to not order the planes to return could lead to impeachment, but “we live in reality, that’s not going to happen.”
Watch the videos above or at this link.
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