Closing summary
A legal dispute over the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century law designed to be used in wartime, to deport Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador is escalating, with some experts warning that the constitutional balance of power between the executive branch and the American court system is coming into question.
This, and other key news of the day:
On Monday, the White House denied violating a federal judge’s order this weekend to halt deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, while also arguing that the judge did not have authority to make that order. The administration had previously celebrated the highly publicized arrival of deportees to El Salvador on social media, while El Salvador’s president posted “Oopsie … too late” alongside an article about the US judge’s order.
Trump’s US border czar said publicly: “I don’t care what the judges think.”
Top Trump administration officials, including attorney general Pam Bondi, spent much of Monday publicly attacking the federal judge on the case, James Boasberg, claiming his rulings were an intrusion into the president’s foreign policy powers. A lawyer for the administration also asked the DC court of appeals to remove Boasberg from the case altogether, saying his rulings were out of line.
When Boasberg ordered a hearing at 5pm to ask a lawyer for the Trump justice department to clarify the timeline of the government’s actions with regard to the deportation flights to El Salvador before and after his order halting the deportations, the administration tried to cancel the hearing at the last minute, arguing they had no further information to provide.
When the judge ordered the hearing to continue, an attorney for the administration refused to provide any details about the flights or their timing, citing national security.
The Trump administration also argued during the hearing that it had in fact complied with Boasberg’s written order halting deportations, and that it did not have to also comply with what Boasberg had told them earlier in a verbal order, that they needed to return any flights of deportees currently in the air to the US for the next stages of the legal dispute. Boasberg called this “a heck of an argument”.
The Trump administration further argued that Boasberg’s order about returning the planes with deportees to the US only had authority while the planes were in US airspace, an assertion Boasberg disputed. (Other legal experts also disputed this.)
The ACLU’s lawyer in the case, Lee Gelernt, said at the hearing: “I think we’re getting very close” to a constitutional crisis.
Boasberg did not make any rulings following the hour-long hearing, but ordered the Trump administration to answer a series of questions about the flights, its invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, and the national security issues it had raised, by noon on Tuesday.
Venezuela’s government characterized the transfer of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador as “kidnappings” that it plans to challenge as “crimes against humanity” before the United Nations and other international organizations, the AP reported.
Family members of Venezuelan migrants who have gone missing this weekend told reporters they were concerned for their loved ones. One woman said she had seen her 19-year-old brother among the men photographed being marched into a prison in El Salvador. Several disputed that their family members were gang members and said they believed they had been targeted because of their tattoos.
Trump announced on Truth Social that he was ending secret service protections for Joe Biden’s adult children, Ashley Biden and Hunter Biden.
Trump also said the government would release all of the remaining classified documents related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy on Tuesday, something he had pledged to do during his campaign.
Trump also said Joe Biden’s pardon of January 6 committee lawmakers was “void”, and his press secretary later said, without evidence, that the former president may not have been of sound mind when he gave it.
Meanwhile, the CEO of the non-profit US Institute of Peace said Monday that employees of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” had “broken into our building”, as part of an escalating standoff over the legal status of the Institute and whether Musk has authority over it.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senate minority leader, has reportedly canceled a book tour as he faces protests from members of his own party for providing votes crucial to the passage of a Republican spending bill.
Updated
Timeline of the deportation flights crisis
The Associated Press has made a timeline of Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants in the US to El Salvador this weekend.
The precise timing of these events is currently center of a heated legal battle that experts say risks turning into a constitutional crisis.
Saturday, 15 March
2.16am: Two legal advocacy groups – the ACLU and Democracy Forward – file suit on behalf of five Venezuelans held in immigration detention who fear they’ll be falsely labeled members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and deported under the Alien Enemies Act, which lawyers expect to be invoked soon.
9.40am: Judge James Boasberg issues a temporary restraining order preventing the government from deporting the five plaintiffs. He schedules a 5pm hearing on whether to expand it. The Trump administration swiftly appeals the order.
Roughly 4pm: The White House posts the order invoking the Alien Enemies Act.
5pm: Boasberg convenes a hearing and asks the government attorney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, if the government plans to deport anyone under Trump’s new proclamation “in the next 24 or 48 hours”. Ensign says he doesn’t know and asks for time to find out, as the ACLU warns planes are apparently about to depart. Boasberg gives Ensign about 40 minutes to find out and recesses the hearing at 5.22pm.
5.26pm: An airplane with the tail number N278GX, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, leaves Harlingen, Texas, near the border with Mexico, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
5.45pm: Another airplane with the tail number N837VA, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, departs Harlingen.
About 5.55pm: Boasberg reconvenes the hearing. Ensign says he still has no specifics. The ACLU again warns that planes are leaving. Boasberg says he has to issue a new order to avoid anyone being immediately deported.
Around 6.45pm: Boasberg tells Ensign: “Inform your clients of this immediately, and 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.” He verbally issues his order, which stands for 14 days, and notes that immigrants protected by it will remain in US custody.
7.26pm: Boasberg’s written order is released.
7.36pm: The plane with the tail number N278GX lands in Honduras.
7.37pm: An airplane with the tail number N630VA, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, departs Harlingen.
8.02pm: The plane with the tail number N837VA lands in El Salvador.
9.46pm: The plane with the tail number N630VA arrives in Honduras.
10.41pm: The plane with the tail number N278GX departs Honduras.
Sunday, 16 March:
1.03am: The plane with the tail number N630VA arrives in El Salvador.
7.46am: El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, tweets a New York Post headline saying Boasberg had ordered planes turned around and adds “Oopsie … Too late” and a laughing/crying emoji.
8.13am: Bukele tweets footage of the deportees arriving and being processed into his country’s showcase prison.
Updated
