ABC reports on the hearing today on the El Salvador deportations:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard arguments Monday afternoon over the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act last week to deport more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador with no due process.
“There were plane loads of people. There were no procedures in place to notify people,” Judge Patricia Millett said. “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act.”
Judge Millett noted that alleged Nazis were given hearing boards and were subject to established regulations, while the alleged members of Tren De Aragua were given no such rights.
“There’s no regulations, and nothing was adopted by the agency officials that were administering this. They people weren’t given notice. They weren’t told where they were going. They were given those people on those planes on that Saturday and had no opportunity to file habeas or any type of action to challenge the removal under the AEA,” Judge Millet said. “What’s factually wrong about what I said?”
“Well, Your Honor, we certainly dispute the Nazi analogy,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign said, arguing some of the men were able to file habeas petitions.
I don’t know why he would argue with that. From what Trump says, they’re worse than Nazis and Venezuela is directing them to attack the United States. And yet, even in a world war, we managed to give some kind of due process to the people they said were Nazis or Nazi sympathizers.
This particular hearing wasn’t about whether the administration can use the Alien Enemies Act in this circumstance but rather whether a federal court has the right to block the president from doing anything he wants in the name of national security.
Ensign compared Boasberg’s restraining order to a judge directing a carrier group from the South China Sea to the Persian Gulf — an analogy that drew an immediate rebuke from Millett.
“Hang on. Hang on,” Millett said. “Asserting a power to do that is not ordering ships to relocate in foreign waters, right? That is a straight up judicial process that’s allowed by the Supreme Court and Circuit president.”
The DOJ argues that the prisoners did have a right to petition against their deportation but as the judge said, there’s no process to use it! They grabbed them and put them on a plane without notice.
“So your theory is that they don’t get the challenges until they’re in the Salvadorian jail?” the judge said. “Are you saying that they don’t have a right, until they’re removed from the United States, in U.S. custody, to challenge?”
Yes. That’s exactly what they are saying. Once they have already been deported to that dystopian hellhole in El Salvador they can protest their deportation.
This was the only judge who aggressively challenged the government so who knows what the other two are going to do? They may well decide to punt and say that the case should have been heard in Texas (as one of them suggested) instead of the DC circuit. I won’t be surprised. But this one judge certainly did seem to have their number. I hope she’s prepared for the death threats.