When a US federal judge ordered a temporary suspension on the Donald Trump administration’s deportation of around 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, the plane carrying them was already over the international waters, Axios reported citing insiders as the Trump administration was accused of defying the court order. “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 critic, wrote on X, adding that Trump could ultimately get impeached.
“This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we’re going to win,” a senior White House official told Axios.
El Salvador president Nayib Bukele also maintained that it was too late for the verdict as he wrote: “Oopsie … Too late.”
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended the deportations, saying Trump was “using his core powers as president and commander-in-chief to defend the American people from an urgent threat.”
Trump on Friday signed an order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, but it was not publicly announced until Saturday. The wartime authority allows a president to detain or deport citizens of an enemy nation, and has been invoked only three times before — during major international conflicts, including World War I and II. The Act was invoked so that the members of Tren de Aragua could be deported as Bukele agreed to house prisoners in El Salvador’s notorious mega jail with windowless cells.
Did the Trump administration defy court order intentionally? Here’s the timeline
At 2:31 p.m. Saturday, an immigration activist who tracks deportation flights, posted on X that “TWO HIGHLY UNUSUAL ICE flights” were departing from Texas to El Salvador. The court order came hours later. “This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately,” he told the Justice Department, according to the Washington Post. At that time, around 6.51pm, both the flights were off Yucatan Peninsula, Axios reported.
“They were already outside of US airspace. We believe the order is not applicable,” a senior administration official told Axios.
