Trump administration deports 250 gang members despite ruling from judge.

 

Deported gang members in El Salvador's CECOT prison. New York Post/AFP/Government handout. 

The Trump administration has deported 250 Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador despite a stay from a judge. New York Post. US District Judge James Boasberg issued a 14 day stay to stop the deportations which were justified by the government by the 1789 Alien Enemies Act. The judge ordered no flights to take off of for any planes in the air to return. However, a plane with 250 Venezuelans were already in the air. The Government argued that since the plane was in international waters at that point, the Judge's ruling did not apply. They also said that they were not defying the order, despite the media arguing otherwise, with no further deportations happening under the 1789 act. The deportees were members of the violent Tren De Aragua and MS13 gangs. The case will be appealed to the Supreme Court. 

My Comment:

At some point, something will have to be done to deal with these activist judges. The 1789 Alien Enemies Act is on solid legal ground and so is the idea of deporting members of gangs that are listed as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. I don't think there is any legal argument that the President can't use both of these laws to deport these gang members. In order to prevent it they would have to somehow rule that either the act or the foreign terrorist declaration was unconstitutional and I don't see how they could do that. I am guessing that the Supreme Court would agree. 

Of course the real reason for this is for the case to work its way through the legal system as an attempt to run the clock out on the Trump Administration. The original stay is for two weeks and that's two weeks we could be deporting more of these criminals. And that's assuming nothing else happens with the case. It's a strategy that the Democrats have been using since the start of Trump's administration and I, for one, am sick of it. 

Folks on both sides of the argument are saying that the Trump administration is defying the judge's order. But I don't really see it that way. The planes were apparently in flight when the order was issued so it's not like they could be turned around realistically. When the judge makes a ruling that is impossible to follow then it's not really valid and is a built in defense of any contempt order the judge issues. 

And, so far, there hasn't been any further deportation flights using the 1789 law as justification for not having hearings. If the Trump administration does start to deport further gang members under that law then it's possible that they could argue that Trump isn't complying to judges order, but that isn't what is happening here. 

Of course there really isn't anything saying that Trump can't just ignore court orders. Joe Biden did when he went against the Supreme Court when it came to forgiving student debt (the double standard is ridiculous), and nothing happened to him. And it's part of the system of Checks and Balances that though Judges can make rulings, they have no actual power to enforce them, like the famous, possibly apocryphal quote from Andrew Jackson, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.". 

So under the system of Checks and Balances, Trump can indeed ignore the court order if he so desires. So why isn't he really doing it when the Judicial Branch is out of control? Because the check against that comes from the Legislative Branch. If he does, he might get impeached for it. It would be extremely unlikely given the current makeup of the House, but who knows what happens after 2026? Trump's 1st term was marred by two pointless impeachments and it hurt not only his presidency, but his 2020 election campaign. 

Either way, I think more than a few people would think it is worth the risk. These judges aren't ruling based on the law, they are, like I said above, trying to buy time until Trump is out of office. The fact that they are doing so for gang members in designated terror group is almost beyond parody. I no some people are saying the judge should be impeached, and I don't disagree, though I doubt they would have the 67 votes in the Senate they need to get rid of him...