THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jun 24, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
Ashley Oliver


NextImg:Venezuelan migrants not deported ‘solely’ with Alien Enemies Act, ICE official says - Washington Examiner

The Trump administration responded Tuesday to a judge’s questions about whether it defied a court order, saying it did not and that it used more than just the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.

Robert Cerna, an acting field office director within Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Judge James Boasberg in an affidavit that one of three planes deporting alleged gang members on Saturday took off after the judge ordered the Trump administration to halt its use of the Alien Enemies Act.

Recommended Stories

“All individuals on that third plane had Title 8 final removal orders and thus were not removed solely on the basis of the Proclamation at issue,” Cerna said.

Title 8 is a part of the U.S. Code that allows federal authorities to quickly remove certain migrants who cross into the country illegally. The Alien Enemies Act, which Trump invoked in a proclamation on Saturday, is a rarely used law passed in 1798 that gives the president the power to remove migrants immediately if they come from invading countries in times of war.

Cerna did not give details about the other two planes that deported migrants on Saturday despite Boasberg asking for those details by noon on Tuesday.

Department of Justice attorneys defiantly wrote in a notice accompanying Cerna’s statements that they saw “no justification” to provide the judge with more information, but they suggested they would do so if the judge arranged for it in a closed-door setting. Boasberg agreed to do so later on Tuesday.

The notice was signed by a dozen DOJ lawyers, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and others in DOJ leadership, a sign of their growing animosity toward the judge, whom Bondi recently said “supported Tren de Aragua terrorists.”

The new court filings submitted by the DOJ came amid an intensifying lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over allegations the Trump administration improperly invoked the Alien Enemies Act and then defied Boasberg’s order temporarily pausing the use of the act for 14 days.

Boasberg gave a verbal order around 6:48 p.m. on Saturday to the Trump administration, telling it to “immediately” stop all planes taking off and turn around any planes that were in midair that were deporting Venezuelans based on the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg followed his verbal order with a written order at about 7:25 p.m.

“That oral Order of course carries no less weight than the Court’s written Order,” the ACLU attorneys wrote.

The DOJ attorneys disagreed, writing on Tuesday that the judge’s oral order was “not independently enforceable” and that all “relevant flights” left U.S. airspace before the judge issued his written order at 7:25 p.m. on Saturday.

The DOJ’s remarks came even after Boasberg signaled Monday in a hearing that those justifications would not satisfy him.

“I think my equitable powers are pretty clear that they do not lapse at the water’s edge,” Boasberg said Monday.

CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: IMPEACHMENT ‘NOT APPROPRIATE’ FOR JUDGES RULING AGAINST TRUMP

Cerna also said in another declaration that “many” migrants who were removed based on the Alien Enemies Act did not have criminal records in the United States but that they were all “carefully vetted” by ICE officials, who determined they were members of the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua.

“The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with TdA, the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose,” Cerna said. “It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”