The Trump administration told Axios that it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters. Therefore, the ruling didn’t apply, two senior officials told Axios.
The administration’s decision to defy a federal judge’s order is exceedingly rare and highly controversial, reports Axios.
It is also extremely rare and highly controversial for minor leftist judges around the country to stop every executive action by the duly elected president.
The Constitutional Crisis
“Court order defied. First of many as I’ve been warning and start of true constitutional crisis,” national security attorney Mark S. Zaid, a Trump hater, wrote on X, adding that Trump could ultimately get impeached.
[This is what they have been hoping for.]
The White House welcomes that fight. “This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we’re going to win,” a senior White House official told Axios.
A second administration official said Trump was not defying the judge whose ruling came too late for the planes to change course: “Very important that people understand we are not actively defying court orders.”
The Alien Enemies Act of 1789
Trump’s advisers contend U.S. District Judge James Boasberg overstepped his authority by issuing an order that blocked the president from deporting about 250 alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1789.
The war-time law gives the executive extreme immense power to deport noncitizens without a judicial hearing. But it has been little-used, particularly in peacetime.
“It’s the showdown that was always going to happen between the two branches of government,” a senior White House official said. “And it seemed that this was pretty clean. You have Venezuelan gang members … These are bad guys, as the president would say.”
How it happened: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller “orchestrated” the process in the West Wing in tandem with Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem. Few outside their teams knew what was happening.
They didn’t actually set out to defy a court order. “We wanted them on the ground first, before a judge could get the case, but this is how it worked out,” said the official.
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter
