Trump administration doubles down on stand on deportation flights to El Salvador
The Trump administration continues to insist it didn't defy a federal judge's order when it failed to turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is weighing whether the government defied his order blocking the deportations of alleged gang members who hadn't been afforded due process. It's a case that's become a flashpoint in the rising tension between the administration and federal courts.
In a
14-page document filed late Tuesday night
, the Justice Department spelled out before Boasberg why it didn't turn around the two flights carrying alleged Tren de Aragua gang members despite his verbal order to do so.
"These removals both complied with the law and safeguarded Americans against members of a foreign terrorist organization. The Government will continue to defend the removals before this Court and, if necessary, on appeal challenging this Court's two injunctions issued on March 15," the filing reads. It's signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior DOJ officials.
The government attempts to thread the needle regarding Boasberg's directive, arguing that it didn't "remove" any of the migrants after he entered his order and that it "complied with the Court's injunction with respect to the two flights at issue" because it didn't formally remove anyone after 7:25 p.m. Saturday, though acknowledging it "did not order any removal flights to return to the United States."
The DOJ continued to argue that Boasberg's order was unclear and insufficient to be binding, asserting it "failed to satisfy the requirements for issuing a binding injunction "because Boasberg and the court didn't state "the reasons why it issued" the injunction.
"It is well-settled (in law) that an oral directive is not enforceable as an injunction," the filing says.
The DOJ later in the filing argues that once the flights were out of U.S. airspace, they were "military matters" and President Trump has the power to order military flights wherever he wants.
On Monday, the administration
invoked a state secrets privilege
and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.
Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, has
asked for details
about when the planes landed and who was on board, information the administration asserts would harm "diplomatic and national security concerns."
Government attorneys also asked an appeals court on Monday to lift
Boasberg's order
and allow deportations to continue, a push that appeared to divide the three-judge panel.
Circuit Court Judge Patricia Millett said, "Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here," referring to the way
Nazis detained in the U.S.
during World World II were processed compared to the Venezuelan immigrants
deported
to El Salvador this month under the same statute.
"We certainly dispute the Nazi analogy," government attorney Drew Ensign responded during a hearing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Millett noted that during World War II, Nazis were put before hearing boards under Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, and the Trump administration has conceded the alleged
Tren de Aragua
gang members deported to El Salvador and detained in a maximum security prison didn't have the chance to appear in court.
Millett is one of the three appellate judges who will decide whether to lift a March 15 order temporarily prohibiting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. They didn't rule from the bench Monday.
Judge Justin Walker, who also sits on the appeals court, appeared open to the administration's argument that the migrants should be challenging their detention in Texas rather than the nation's capital. The third judge on the panel didn't ask any questions.
The administration has transferred hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, invoking the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II.
Also on Monday, attorneys representing the Venezuelan government filed a legal action in El Salvador to free 238 Venezuelans who are being held in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison after the U.S. deported them.
The Alien Enemies Act allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge. Mr. Trump issued a proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.
Ensign argued that Boasberg's ruling was an "unprecedented and enormous intrusion upon the powers of the executive branch."
"The president has to comply with the Constitution and the laws like anyone else," said Millett, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama in 2013.
Judge Justin Walker, whom Mr. Trump nominated in 2020, seemed to be more receptive to the administration's arguments based on his line of questioning. Walker pointed to the government's assertions that the plaintiffs should have filed their lawsuit in Texas, where the immigrants were detained.
"You could have filed the exact same complaint you filed here in Texas district court," Walker told American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt.
"We have no idea if everyone is in Texas," Gelernt said.
Walker also pressed the plaintiffs' lawyer to cite any prior case in which a judicial order blocking "a national security operation with foreign implications" survived appellate review.
Gelernt accused the administration of trying to use the law to "short circuit" immigration proceedings. Plaintiffs' attorneys had no way to individually challenge all the deportations before planeloads of Venezuelans took off on March 15, he added.
"This has all been done in secret," Gelernt said.
Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990, was the third judge on the panel. She's the one who didn't ask any questions during a hearing that lasted roughly two hours.
Boasberg, also an Obama nominee, ruled that immigrants facing deportation must get an opportunity to challenge their designations as alleged gang members. He said there is "a strong public interest in preventing the mistaken deportation of people based on categories they have no right to challenge."
"The public also has a significant stake in the Government's compliance with the law,"
the judge wrote
.
Mr. Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg.
In a rare statement, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said "impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision."
Just after midnight Monday, Mr. Trump posted a social media message questioning Boasberg's impartiality and calling for him to be disbarred.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
12 minutes ago
- Politico
‘It's made up': Democrats say Rubio isn't playing it straight about foreign aid cuts
Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of lying about the state of America's top global health program following massive cuts to foreign aid led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. The administration has cut more than a hundred contracts and grants from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the HIV and AIDS program credited with saving millions of lives in poor countries. President Donald Trump has shut down the agency that signed off on most PEPFAR spending and fired other staffers who supported it. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Democrats' concerns are overblown, considering that PEPFAR remains '85 percent operative.' Rubio has made the claim repeatedly in budget testimony before Congress, but neither he nor the State Department will provide a detailed accounting to back up the figure. For flummoxed Democrats, it indicates a broader problem: How to respond to Trump's budget requests when his administration refuses to spend the money Congress has provided. Trump last month asked Congress to cut PEPFAR's budget for next year by 40 percent. 'It's made up,' Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said when asked by POLITICO about the 85 percent figure. 'It's the most successful, bipartisan, highly efficient life-saving thing that the United States has ever done and Elon Musk went in and trashed it.' Schatz confronted Rubio about the cuts at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing in May, telling him: 'You are required to spend 100 percent of the money.' Rubio said the 15 percent cut targeted programs that weren't delivering the services the government was paying for. He pointed to fraud in Namibia and armed conflict in Sudan as reasons for slashed funding, although it isn't clear those instances were related to PEPFAR. Asked repeatedly by POLITICO for more clarity on what the 85 percent figure represents, a State Department spokesperson said that 'PEPFAR-funded programs that deliver HIV care and treatment or prevention of mother to child transmission services are operational for a majority of beneficiaries.' Data collection is ongoing to capture recent updates to programming, the spokesperson also said, adding: 'We expect to have updated figures later this year.' The day after his exchange with Schatz, Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he meant 85 percent of PEPFAR's beneficiaries were still getting U.S. assistance. But the goal, he said, was to pass off all of the work to the countries where the beneficiaries live. 'We're by far the most generous nation on Earth on foreign aid, and will continue to be by far with no other equal, including China, despite all this alarmist stuff,' he said. People who worked on implementing PEPFAR, both inside and outside the government, as well as advocates for HIV prevention and care, are alarmed nonetheless. A State Department report from the month before Trump took office underscores the breadth of its services. In fiscal 2024, the report says, PEPFAR provided medication to 20.6 million people, including 566,000 children, HIV prevention services to 2.3 million girls and women, and testing for 83.8 million. After DOGE dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development in February, several recipients of PEPFAR grants and contracts said they'd had to lay off staff even as Rubio insisted that life-saving aid was continuing. Rubio's skeptics point to the Trump administration's cancellation of more than 100 HIV grants and contracts, representing about 20 percent of PEPFAR's total budget, according to an analysis by the Center for Global Development, an anti-poverty group. In addition to shutting down USAID, the agency that dispensed and monitored much of that funding, the administration fired experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's global health division who worked on the program, including those specializing in maternal and child HIV. 'I'm not sure where he got these numbers,' Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said of Rubio's 85 percent claim. The lack of clarity has angered HIV activists, who protested against the PEPFAR cuts during the budget hearings where Rubio testified. 'It's unconscionable and alarming to know that 130 days into this administration, Rubio has overseen the completely unnecessary decimation of life-saving services to millions of people, then lying about that fact over and over again,' said Asia Russell, executive director of Health GAP, a nonprofit working on access to HIV treatment in developing countries. Russell was among those arrested for disrupting Rubio's House Foreign Affairs hearing. The confusion around how much of America's celebrated global health program is still operational adds to the uncertainty about the Trump administration's spending plans for the funds Congress appropriated for 2025. And it comes as Congress gears up to consider the president's 2026 budget request. Last month, Trump asked Congress to reduce the PEPFAR budget from $4.8 billion this year to $2.9 billion next. And on Tuesday, the White House asked Congress to claw back $900 million Congress had provided for HIV/AIDS services and other global health initiatives this year, but insisted that it was keeping programs that provide treatment intact. Even if the Trump administration isn't cutting treatment funding, it has cut other awards that ensure drugs reach people, Russell said. She pointed to a terminated USAID award that was delivering drugs to faith-based nonprofit clinics in Uganda. 'The medicine is literally languishing on shelves in a massive warehouse behind the U.S. embassy,' Russell said. Coons said prevention, if that's what's on the chopping block, is as important as treatment: 'For us to step back from supporting not just treatment but prevention puts us at risk of a reemergence of a more lethal, drug resistant form of HIV/AIDS.' Leading Republicans aren't objecting, even though PEPFAR was created by then-President George W. Bush and long enjoyed bipartisan support. Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch of Idaho declined to comment when POLITICO asked him about the program. Earlier this year, Risch said PEPFAR was 'in jeopardy' after the Biden administration acknowledged that Mozambique, a country in east Africa, had misused program funds to provide at least 21 abortions. Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who leads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he agrees with the cuts Trump has made and suggested he would want more in the future. 'We also need to be asking the question: How long should American taxpayers borrow money to fund HIV medication for 20 million Africans?' Mast said. The top Democratic appropriators in the House and Senate accused the White House in late May of failing to provide detailed and legally required information about what the administration is doing with billions of dollars Congress directed it to spend. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut wrote to the White House Office of Management and Budget that the administration's decision to not abide by a funding law Trump signed in March has 'degraded Congress' capacity to carry out its legislative responsibilities' and move forward with fiscal 2026 spending bills. It has also clouded plans for reupping the law that directs the PEPFAR program. It expired in March. Mast has said that Congress would consider PEPFAR's future by September, as part of a larger debate about State Department priorities. But Democrats wonder how they could move forward with reauthorizing the program given the uncertainty surrounding it, said a Senate Democratic aide speaking anonymously to share internal debates.
CNN
15 minutes ago
- CNN
US and China set to kick off fresh round of trade talks in London over intractable issues
A new round of trade negotiations between the United States and China is set to begin Monday in London as both sides try to preserve a fragile truce brokered last month. The fresh talks were announced last week after a long-anticipated phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which appeared to ease tensions that erupted over the past month following a surprise agreement in Geneva. In May, the two sides agreed to drastically roll back tariffs on each other's goods for an initial 90-day period. The mood was upbeat. However, sentiment soured quickly over two major sticking points: China's control over so-called rare earths minerals and its access to semiconductor technology originating from the US. Beijing's exports of rare earths and their related magnets are expected to take center stage at the London meeting. But experts say Beijing is unlikely to give up its strategic grip over the essential minerals, which are needed in a wide range of electronics, vehicles and defense systems. 'China's control over rare earth supply has become a calibrated yet assertive tool for strategic influence,' Robin Xing, Morgan Stanley's chief China economist, wrote in a Monday research note. 'Its near-monopoly of the supply chain means rare earths will remain a significant bargaining chip in trade negotiations.' Since the talks in Geneva, Trump has accused Beijing of effectively blocking the export of rare earths, announcing additional chip curbs and threatening to revoke the US visas of Chinese students. The moves have provoked backlash from China, which views Washington's decisions as reneging on its trade promises. All eyes will be on whether both sides can come to a consensus in London on issues of fundamental importance. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng. On Saturday, Beijing appeared to send conciliatory signals. A spokesperson for China's Commerce Ministry, which oversees the export controls, said it had 'approved a certain number of compliant applications.' 'China is willing to further enhance communication and dialogue with relevant countries regarding export controls to facilitate compliant trade,' the spokesperson said. Kevin Hassett, head of the National Economic Council at the White House, told CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday that the US side would be looking to restore the flow of rare earth minerals. 'Those exports of critical minerals have been getting released at a rate that is higher than it was, but not as high as we believe we agreed to in Geneva,' he said, adding that he is 'very comfortable' with a trade deal being made after the talks. In April, as tit-for-tat trade tension between the two countries escalated, China imposed a new licensing regime on seven rare earth minerals and several magnets, requiring exporters to seek approvals for each shipment and submit documentation to verify the intended end use of these materials. Following the trade truce negotiated in Geneva, the Trump administration expected China to lift restrictions on those minerals. But Beijing's apparent slow-walking of approvals triggered deep frustration within the White House, CNN reported last month. Rare earths are a group of 17 elements that are more abundant than gold and can be found in many countries, including the United States. But they're difficult, costly and environmentally polluting to extract and process. China controls 90% of global rare earth processing. Experts say it's possible that Beijing may seek to use its leverage over rare earths to get Washington to ease its own export controls aimed at blocking China's access to advanced US semiconductors and related technologies. The American Chamber of Commerce in China said on Friday that some Chinese suppliers of American companies have received six-month export licenses. Reuters also reported that suppliers of major American carmakers – including General Motors, Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis – were granted temporary export licenses for a period of up to six months. While China may step up the pace of license approvals to cool the diplomatic temperature, global access to Chinese rare earth minerals will likely remain more restricted than it was before April, according to a Friday research note by Leah Fahy, a China economist and other experts at Capital Economics, a London-based consultancy. 'Beijing had become more assertive in its use of export controls as tools to protect and cement its global position in strategic sectors, even before Trump hiked China tariffs this year,' the note said. As China tackles a tariff war with the US head on, it's clear that it is continuing to cause economic pain at home. Trade data released Monday painted a gloomy picture for the country's export-reliant economy. Its overall overseas shipments rose by just 4.8% in May compared to the same month a year earlier, according to data released by China's General Administration of Customs. It was a sharp slowdown from the 8.1% recorded in April, and lower than the estimate of 5.0% export growth from a Reuters poll of economists. Its exports to the US suffered a steep decline of 34.5%. The sharp monthly fall widened from a 21% drop in April and came despite the trade truce announced on May 12 that brought American tariffs on Chinese goods down from 145% to 30%. Still, Lü Daliang, a spokesperson for the customs department, talked up China's economic strength, telling the state-run media Xinhua that China's goods trade has demonstrated 'resilience in the face of external challenges.' Meanwhile, deflationary pressures continue to stalk the world's second-largest economy, according to data released separately on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In May, China's Consumer Price Index (CPI), a benchmark for measuring inflation, dropped 0.1% compared to the same month last year. Factory-gate deflation, measured by the Producer Price Index (PPI), worsened with a 3.3% decrease in May from a year earlier. Last month's drop marks the sharpest year-on-year contraction in 22 months, according to NBS data. Dong Lijuan, chief statistician at the NBS, attributed the decline in producer prices, which measures the average change in prices received by producers of goods and services, to a drop in global oil and gas prices, as well as the decrease in prices for coal and other raw materials due to low cyclical demand. The high base of last year was cited as another reason for the decline, Dong said in a statement. CNN's Hassan Tayir, Simone McCarthy, Fred He contributed reporting.
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Juneteenth reaches 25 years in the Chippewa Valley
EAU CLAIRE — It is a landmark Berlye Middleton is proud of, as Eau Claire's Juneteenth celebration reaches its silver anniversary. '25 years — that says something for our community,' said Middleton in a recent interview with the Leader-Telegram. 'It's a big check in terms of equity, inclusiveness, fairness and not [towards] attempts to revise the past.' And that is just what Juneteenth acknowledges: the ending of a dark part of our nation's history, and the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation that freed millions of African-Americans who were previously enslaved for hundreds of years in the United States. Former president Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law in 2021, federally recognizing the holiday. Middleton is the president of Uniting Bridges of Eau Claire, the host organization of the Juneteenth event taking place next week in Carson Park. He pointed out that Eau Claire was an early pioneer in advocating for the importance of the holiday. 'Our community recognized it even before the state recognized it, and long before the federal government realized it was important,' said Middleton. He noted there has been a shift in the national discourse surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). With federal initiatives aimed at curtailing or abolishing those efforts, individuals already harboring negative views towards DEI have begun to cast doubts on the qualifications of those who benefit from these programs, specifically questioning their suitability for various employment positions. 'They just ignore a person's qualifications,' said Middleton. 'They think: that person is black and I see that as why that person was hired. It's so ridiculous now, but it's a reality. In some people's minds, it has always been that way with them.' But Middleton also noted that this has not reduced, for example, sponsors and exhibitors at the event that have been a part of the Eau Claire Juneteenth event. 'They've annually been a part of Juneteenth and continue to do so in spite of other regressive types of policies that have come forth in the last year.' At this year's event there will once again be speakers, music, games, and even an event earlier in the day at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library. The event, scheduled in the Youth Program Room (Room 123) in the library on June 19 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will also feature interactive activities, snacks, music, and hands-on crafts while the significance of the holiday is discussed. Middleton also clarified that the event is open to all, dispelling a misconception that occurred in the last few years. He has learned that people coming to the event have soon left upon seeing only Democratic members of government in prior events. Those people came to the conclusion that the event is only open to those who subscribe to certain political beliefs, and he said that this is not the case. Middleton said that the good news is that there will be a Republican Party table at the event, thanks to Michele Skinner (R-Altoona), who made her intention to participate clear after learning that she and others are — and have been — welcome to attend. 'This is an event for everyone, regardless of your ideology,' he said. '[Republicans] are a part of the community. We don't like when people make us invisible and we don't want to do that to them.' Middleton said that there is still a long way to go, and has concerns that a backslide in progress could occur, meaning losing years of progress in getting citizens of color onto a level playing field. 'Things are still not equal; they are not equitable,' he said. 'Instead of becoming a continued force of world progress, we are on the precipice of our nation, our state and our community becoming the worst of our past and becoming a model of aggression that should never be duplicated, replicated or any other way repeated.'
