The Trump administration this week resumed expelling hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, including suspected members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang, through alternative methods not barred by a federal court.
Despite an active court order blocking mass deportations under a wartime-era law, at least one plane departed the United States on Sunday amid the fallout from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg‘s March 15 order, which halted deportations carried out under the Alien Enemies Act. The judge’s order was responsive to a suit filed by five Venezuelan nationals who alleged their rights were violated when they were loaded onto flights containing around 250 migrants bound for a prison complex in El Salvador.
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Now, 11 days later, President Donald Trump’s efforts to remove Venezuelan migrants continue after a previously stalled agreement between Washington and Caracas was revived. And no court is standing in the way this time.
Mass migrant removals by plane are still ongoing
On Sunday, a flight carrying 199 Venezuelan deportees departed the United States, stopped in Honduras for a transfer, and landed in Venezuela early Monday morning — the first such repatriation flight in weeks. U.S. and Honduran officials confirmed that some of those on board were affiliated with Tren de Aragua.
“We expect to see a consistent flow of deportation flights to Venezuela going forward. Thank you to Honduran President Castro and her government for partnering to combat illegal immigration,” the U.S. Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs announced in a post to X on Sunday.
The resumption of deportations comes after critics on the Right condemned Boasberg’s ruling as judicial overreach, with Trump calling for his impeachment and House Republicans planning an April 1 hearing targeting judges who have issued injunctions against the administration’s agenda.
But the latest events raise questions about the extent to which Boasberg’s decision actually stymied deportation efforts — or whether it merely forced the administration to come up with a Plan B.
“The administration is clearly continuing deportations, just relying on other authorities,” said John Malcolm, director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. “I’m not sure why the administration felt the need to rely on [the Alien Enemies Act] in the first place, unless it’s to expedite the process — especially for suspected gang members who haven’t had a full hearing.”
If migrants are going back home, why is the Alien Enemies Act so important for Trump?
The Alien Enemies Act offers Trump a powerful tool to bypass what administration officials see as loopholes in the standard expedited removal process that can be slow and oftentimes delay deportations for individuals who lack any valid or legal reason to remain in the country, according to an immigration expert at the Heritage Foundation.
“With expedited removal, an alien can claim fear, get a credible fear interview, and then apply for asylum — even if an asylum officer rejects the claim, it can still be appealed,” said Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at Heritage. “With the Alien Enemies Act, an alien can be summarily arrested and removed. There is no opportunity to claim fear of persecution or pursue asylum.”
Other legal experts say the strategy may also be about setting a precedent for the future.
“I think Trump is trying to set a precedent under the [Alien Enemies Act] to use in some future case, where he may not have other statutory authority to deport aliens,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston.
Are the problems sorting themselves out?
With repatriation efforts back underway, some experts wonder whether the case before Boasberg will even remain relevant in the weeks and months ahead.
Former federal prosecutor William Shipley suggested in a post to X that Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act may have been related to a sanctions struggle between the U.S. and Venezuela that was underway when Trump invoked the law earlier this month.
Venezuela had accepted some Tren de Aragua members for weeks before halting cooperation on March 8, after Trump imposed new sanctions targeting Chevron’s oil license. Days later, when Venezuela would no longer accept gang members, the U.S. ordered three planeloads full of them to El Salvador.
“The invocation of the [Alien Enemies Act ] and shipment of [Tren de Aragua] members to El Salvador came on March 15. Those two events do not seem to be a coincidence,” Shipley said.
Meanwhile, Boasberg is still weighing whether the Trump administration violated his order demanding they turn around the flights that took off on March 15 — but the White House has refused to provide basic flight details, invoking “state secrets” privilege.
In a Monday court filing, the Justice Department said any disclosure about the timing, routes, or identities of the deportees would “pose reasonable danger to national security and foreign affairs.” Sworn affidavits from top officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, argued that revealing such information would jeopardize law enforcement methods and damage delicate negotiations with foreign governments.
“Removal flight plans… reflect critical means and methods of law enforcement operations,” Noem wrote, warning that even confirming public flight tracking data could help U.S. enemies “stitch together” sensitive patterns.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign argued the court already has “all the facts it needs” and warned that further probing would amount to an unconstitutional intrusion into the president’s Article II powers.
DOJ INVOKING STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE TO DENY BOASBERG INFORMATION IN DEPORTATION CASE
As the administration continues deportation flights and the legal challenge hangs in limbo, House Republicans are still preparing to escalate their fight with the judiciary, even as the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice John Roberts has offered a rare warning against impeachment threats in recent days.
But for now, Trump’s deportation machine appears to be running even amid minor impediments by the judiciary.