Looks like we’re in for nasty weather
“What did they do?” a relation asked Saturday after hearing about two arriving foreign nationals detained for deportation at Boston’s Logan Airport.
Trump needs a reason? He’s doing it because he can, to show who’s boss, and to intimidate the rest of us into submission. (Do not obey in advance.)
To recap a busy weekend:
Those actions were Thursday and Friday, and on top of the Trump administration’s March 8 detention and jailing Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and green card holder over political speech.
In a move CNN predicted on Friday, on Saturday the Trump administration took an even darker turn (The New York Times):
On Saturday, the administration published an executive order invoking the law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to target Venezuelan gang members in the United States.
But shortly after the announcement, James E. Boasberg, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., said he would issue a temporary order blocking the government from deporting any immigrants under the law.
The judge ordered any planes that had departed to return.
Chris Geidner of Dork Law elaborates:
A little before 7:00 p.m. Saturday, a federal judge issued an order temporarily stopping deportations set in motion by President Donald Trump hours earlier when he announced that he had invoked a law last used to justify Japanese internment camps.
With planes departing nearly immediately following Trump’s announcement that he had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — planes full of people the Trump administration would be deporting with no process — Chief Judge James Boasberg said at the conclusion of a Saturday evening hearing, “I am required to act immediately.”
Boasberg issued a nationwide temporary restraining order blocking removal of “all noncitizens in U.S. custody who are subject to [Trump’s order]” — people who the government decides are members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang — for the next 14 days or until a further order from the court.
At the hearing, Boasberg added that planes in the air were to be turned around, telling the Justice Department lawyer that his clients needed to be informed of the TRO “immediately.”
Yeah, good luck with that. The Times follows up with a report that “As of early Sunday morning, it was unclear whether any such planes had departed or returned.”
The ACLU and Democracy Forward filed suit to stop the deportations under the law, arguing that the law “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.”
Furthermore, the filing states, “The government’s Proclamation would allow agents to immediately put noncitizens on planes without any review of any aspect of the determination that they are Alien Enemies. Upon information and belief, the government has transferred Venezuelans who are in ongoing immigration proceedings in other states, bringing them to Texas to prepare to summarily remove them and to do so before any judicial review—including by this Court.”
Except the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, suggests (posted to Twitter at 8:13 AM ET this morning) DHS may have defied the federal court (depending on the flight timing). Bukele states that “238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua” arrived in his country last night along with “23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice.” It appears that the U.S. is paying El Salvador for jailing the Venezuelans.
If indeed these people are criminals in the U.S. illegally, as the Trump administration claims — it also declared Ned Johnson, 82, of Seattle dead, deducted Social Security deposits from his bank, stopped future Social Security checks, and cancelled his Medicare insurance — few will regret their removal. But Americans will have time to regret the administration’s ignoring a federal court at their leisure. And likely sooner rather than later.
First they came for the noncitizens, etc., is going to get old really fast. Trump is looking for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and declare martial law. With his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, he’s not even trying to conceal his intentions.
* * * * *
Have you fought the coup today?
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions