The White House said on Sunday that deportation flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants suspected of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang—a U.S.-designated terrorist organization—did not conflict with a judge’s order that blocked such actions because the ruling was issued after the flights had already left U.S. territory.
“The Administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft ... full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”
Leavitt said the ruling had “no lawful basis” and that federal courts have no jurisdiction over the president’s conduct of foreign affairs.
When asked whether his administration had violated the court order, President Donald Trump deferred to the lawyers.
“I can tell you this: these were bad people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, referring to the alleged gang members.
Boasberg issued a second order later that day, giving all noncitizens who would otherwise be subject to the presidential proclamation a class action certification.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Democracy Forward, representing the five plaintiffs, who had argued that the Alien Enemies Act “plainly only applies to warlike actions.”
“It cannot be used here against nationals of a country—Venezuela—with whom the United States is not at war, which is not invading the United States, and which has not launched a predatory incursion into the United States,” the complaint reads.
She stated that these individuals “were extracted and removed to El Salvador where they will no longer be able to pose any threat to the American People.”
“TDA [Tren de Aragua] is one of the most violent and ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth. They rape, maim and murder for sport,” Leavitt said.
Trump’s proclamation states that many members of the Tren de Aragua gang have “unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions” against the country.