ACLU challenges WH over Venezuelan gang deportation flight Dems tried to stop with a liberal judge

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is challenging the White House, claiming President Donald Trump’s administration potentially violated a court order with deportations.

On Saturday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued a court order preventing the administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to carry out deportations and demanding all planes containing migrants be returned to the United States. Trump had signed an order invoking the act to allow authorities to quickly remove anyone suspected of having ties with Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, preventing the suspects from being given a hearing.

Now, the ACLU is accusing the administration of not following the court order and recalling planes containing migrants that were already headed to Venezuela.

“Based on publicly available information, it appears that there were at least two flights that took off during the hearing but landed even after this Court’s written Order, meaning that Defendants could have turned the plane around without handing over individuals,” the organization wrote in its court filing.

“Whether or not the planes had cleared U.S. territory, the U.S. retained custody at least until the planes landed and the individuals were turned over to foreign governments. And the Court could not have been clearer that it was concerned with losing jurisdiction and authority to order the individuals returned if they were handed over to foreign governments, not with whether the planes had cleared U.S. territory or had even landed in another country.”

According to the ACLU, the order was issued at approximately 6:45 p.m. EDT Saturday, and the plans didn’t land until 7:36 p.m. EDT and 8:02 p.m. EDT Sunday. They are demanding the submission of sworn declarations regarding the flight timing to be submitted.

However, CNN’s Elie Honig is suggesting that the actions may not have violated the order at all.

“They came right close to the line and maybe over it and let me give you the specific details we need to know in order to make this determination,” Honig argued. “At the moment the judge gave the order, he said in court on Saturday afternoon, ‘I want you to not fly anyone out of here or if flights are already in the air I want you to turn them around.’ At that very moment, where were the airplanes? If they were already on the ground in the United States, then yes, the order was defiant. If they had already landed in El Salvador, then no, there was no defiance of the order, it was already too late.”

“If they are mid-flight, then we get into questions of where were they? Were they over American territory or international waters? And that’s some grey area. That may give the Trump administration something to hang their hat on,” he continued.

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.

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