“We are not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.” — “Border czar” Tom Homan
Yes, President Trump’s deportation front man said the quiet part out loud.
Even as the Trump administration tried to deny that planes loaded with Venezuelan deportees and bound for El Salvador couldn’t possibly have been turned around in midair and did not constitute an intentional defying of a judicial order, the evidence mounts that that’s exactly what the administration had in mind.
And the open defiance of a court order would put the administration — and the nation — directly on course for a constitutional crisis, something even Trump’s most ardent supporters should not relish. Deportations carried out even in the wake of two federal court orders to the contrary will be the real test of whether this nation remains a nation of laws.
And perhaps that is why some administration officials continue to rhetorically dance around the issue of intent — however disingenuously.
Advertisement
Over the weekend, President Trump invoked the obscure Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in an effort to speed the removal of Venezuelans aged 14 and over who allegedly belong to the transnational gang Tren de Aragua. The White House dubbed the gang “a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States,” thus justifying the use of the wartime law invoked only three times — during the War of 1812 and World Wars I and II.
US District Court Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked Trump’s use of the law Saturday and ordered officials to halt the departure of or even return to the United States any planes carrying such detainees. From there things get murky.
“Oopsie, too late,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele posted on X (complete with laughing emoji) as planes loaded with some 260 immigrant detainees arrived to fill a newly constructed prison in El Salvador for which the US will pay about $6 million for the first year.
Three planes took off from Harlingen, Texas, for El Salvador Saturday evening — two of them even as Boasberg was hearing the case and a third after his written order was posted.
Advertisement
Meanwhile White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt continued to insist Monday that the administration “did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order.”
She also argued, however, “The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from US territory. ... The written order and the administration’s actions do not conflict.”
Meanwhile, closer to home, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Rhode Island Hospital physician and assistant professor at Brown University’s medical school, was detained at Logan Airport after returning to the United States from a visit with her parents in Lebanon and deported back to Lebanon, despite her H1B visa and a court order from federal Judge Leo T. Sorokin for a 48-hour stay while he considered her case.
Border officials say they found pictures on Alawieh’s phone of the commemoration of the death of longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Agents reported Alawieh acknowledged following him for his “religious and spiritual teachings and not his politics.”
Customs and Border Patrol official John Wallace said in a sworn declaration filed with the court that border officials at Logan didn’t get formal notice of Sorokin’s order until about 40 minutes after Alawieh’s flight was already in the air.
“At no time would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court’s order,” Wallace wrote. But, he added, agents only act on orders from CBP’s legal counsel, leaving open questions about the timeline. Alawieh’s lawyers will get a chance to argue her case later this month, even as the government faces further questions about its own actions.
Advertisement
Whether one buys the government’s “oops” explanation in the Alawieh case, Boasberg in the Venezuela case was having none of it. During a tense hearing Monday, Justice Department lawyer Abhishek Kambli basically stonewalled the skeptical judge, citing “national security” reasons for not providing more details about the timing of the flights except to say two of the planes left before the judge issued his “written” order, which came about 45 minutes after his verbal order from the bench.
Deportations represent the most immediate trip wire for the Trump administration to trigger a genuine constitutional crisis — once that fig leaf of “we didn’t mean to do it” is dropped and its actual defiance becomes undeniable.
The administration has appealed Boasberg’s order to the Appeals Court and has asked that he be removed from the case for his “micromanagement” of the situation.
For good measure, the president’s allies have also invoked another weapon of choice, impeachment of the judge.
Representative Brandon Gill, a Texas Republican, announced on X, “I just introduced Articles of Impeachment against radical activist Judge James Boasberg.” He got a quick second from Elon Musk, who labeled impeachment “necessary.” And by Tuesday, Trump himself had weighed in on Truth Social and, without naming the judge, called him “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge,” who “should be IMPEACHED!!!”
Within hours Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement, saying, “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Advertisement
What Roberts is trying to head off — what every American should be concerned about — is the slow, steady descent into a world where court orders aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, where judges with the courage to stand up to an administration that breaks the law are threatened, and the rule of law becomes an artifact of a once proud history.
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.
