President Donald Trump's deportation of Venezuelan migrants may have violated a direct court order, leading to what the FBI's former general counsel, Andrew Weissmann, has called a potential "doomsday scenario."
Speaking on MSNBC, Weissman said: "The doomsday scenario for this country is the idea that you would just ignore a court order. At that point, there is no rule of law in this country. You're a law of the jungle. So, that's a thing to keep an eye on as to whether that in fact happened here."
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg demanded the Trump administration halt the removal of 250 mainly Venezuelan people accused of being gang members from the United States.
The Trump administration has said they did not defy Boasberg's orders because his order to turn the planes around was not in writing. Additionally, they said that two planes were already in the air, meaning they were not in U.S. airspace despite carrying out U.S. commands.
Why It Matters
All people within the U.S., whether they are citizens, legal residents, or undocumented, are protected under the constitutional right to due process under the law, meaning people cannot be legally rounded up and sent to prison without a trial.
Trump and some of his allies, including Elon Musk, have also called for the impeachment of judges who have ruled against the administration's far-reaching moves. This violates the foundational principle of the U.S. having three independent branches of government.
What To Know
On Sunday night, the Trump administration deported approximately 250 people of mainly Venezuelan descent, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The same act was used to intern Japanese Americans during World War II.
The Supreme Court later ruled that "aliens who have once passed through our gates, even illegally, may be expelled only after proceedings conforming to traditional standards of fairness encompassed in due process of law."
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that even people accused of being enemy combatants or terrorists have the right to appeal their detention and cannot be detained in ways that violate the Geneva Conventions.
The Trump administration has claimed that all of the people deported are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Trump defined this gang as a terrorist group when he reentered office in January and has given $6 million to the government of El Salvador to hold around 300 gang members in a prison known as CECOT, or the Terrorism Confinement Center.
A report in July 2024 found that at least 261 people have died in El Salvador's prisons over the past 2 and a half years.
Vice President JD Vance said on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday: "There were violent criminals and rapists in our country. Democrats fought to keep them here. President Trump deported them."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt seconded this, saying on X: "The Administration did not 'refuse to comply' with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory."
However, Vance and Leavitt have yet to offer any evidence to prove these statements or that anybody deported last night had access to due process.
One person who was deported was due a hearing today but has now "disappeared," and cannot be located by his lawyer, according to American Immigration Counsel senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
Additionally, while the Trump administration claims that Judge Boasberg's orders came in too late to stop the planes, videos posted by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele may refute this.
The orders were made at 7 p.m. ET, but El Salvador is two hours behind the U.S. The footage of men being taken off the plane in El Salvador was captured at night, leaving questions about whether they deliberately ignored the court order to cease these deportations.
Former Senate legislative assistant, Jeremy Bates, spoke with Newsweek about the Trump administration's reasoning that the judge only gave a spoken order, not a written one, to turn the planes around.
Bates said: "One reason why we have court reporters is so that what the judge orders, verbally in open court, is written down and everyone can refer to it later. I assume there was a court reporter at the hearing in question...At any rate, I would not have done what lawyers in the White House may have done. I would not have advised that planes in the air could proceed as planned, after Judge Boasberg had directed otherwise."
What People Are Saying
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, on X: "A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrying foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil."
American Immigration Counsel senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, on X: "The judge's authority bound the heads of the agency in Washington, DC. He ordered them to turn around any planes in the air and not to deport them under the Alien Enemies Act. They refused. That's contempt of court."
Amnesty International USA, on X: "The United States is defying a court order in order to accelerate the complete erosion of human rights for Venezuelans seeking safety. This is yet another example of the Trump administration's racist targeting, detaining, and deporting of Venezuelans—many of whom haven't even been ordered deported—based on sweeping claims of gang affiliation. The U.S. continues its racist slide toward authoritarian practices."
Jeremy Bates told Newsweek: "If Trump is fined, then Trump will appeal and claim presidential immunity. That appeal will stress-test last summer's immunity decision. Writ large, this Administration's authoritarian version of the unitary executive is colliding with the traditional power of the federal judiciary to say what the law is (to quote Marbury v. Madison). Trump tests barriers to see whether they will hold."
What Happens Next
If the Trump administration is in contempt of court, this is unprecedented territory for a presidential administration. The last time a president was accused of defying legal orders was when Bill Clinton was impeached over his perjury charges. It is unlikely that a Republican-controlled House would impeach Donald Trump.
Update 3/18/25, 4:43 am ET: This article was updated to include comment from former Senate legislative assistant, Jeremy Bates.
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About the writer
Sophie Grace Clark is a Live News reporter based in London, with a focus on crime stories. She has also ... Read more