White House Fires Back: Judge’s Deportation Flight Halt Lacks Legal Ground

The White House has sharply criticized a federal judge for attempting to stop recent deportation flights to El Salvador—a move the Central American leader dismissed as “too late” after accepting the deportations over the weekend. On Friday, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law that permits the deportation of natives and citizens from enemy nations without a hearing. Notably, the act has only been successfully used three times in U.S. history—during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg recently issued an order to halt the deportations so that the legality of Trump’s invocation of the 1798 act could be examined. However, a Trump administration official told Fox News that the aircraft carrying the migrants had already left U.S. airspace by the time the order was issued. In a statement to Fox News on Sunday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that the Trump administration “did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order.” She elaborated, saying, “The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory. The written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict.” Leavitt further emphasized that federal courts generally lack jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his powers under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II authority to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion. “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,” she added. In response to Judge Boasberg’s order, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele took to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, joking, “Oopsie… too late.” He also shared footage showing heavily armed Salvadorean authorities escorting alleged gang members off the planes, shaving their heads, and placing them into detention. According to reports, a total of 261 illegal aliens were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador yesterday. Of these, 137 were removed under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, 101 were Venezuelans deported via Title 8, and another 21 were Salvadoran MS-13 gang members. Additionally, two MS-13 ringleaders were categorized as “special cases” for El Salvador. A senior Trump administration official confirmed these numbers to Fox News, stating that the migrants were implicated in serious crimes including kidnapping, sexual abuse of a child, aggravated assault, prostitution, robbery, and aggravated assault of a police officer. Later on Sunday night, Vice President JD Vance voiced his support for the deportations, tweeting: “There were violent criminals and rapists in our country. Democrats fought to keep them here. President Trump deported them.” This episode has intensified the ongoing debate over the scope of executive power in managing foreign affairs and the application of historical laws in modern national security matters.