Prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. Photo: AP/El Salvador presidential press office
Showdowns between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary will determine the fate of everyone in the country, including whether the government has the right to send U.S. citizens to jail in other countries. The last veneer of democracy is now at risk.
āThis judge, like many of the Crooked Judgesā I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!ā
Donald Trump
Donald Trump is in a position to do almost anything he wants. He was the clear favorite of republican voters and won the popular vote and majorities in congress. Not content to be satisfied with what he says is a mandate, Trump has upped the ante and departed from the traditional definitions of power in Washington. He has legislative control, but he is making an end run around it with executive orders and defiance of the courts. At a moment of radical political change which includes firing thousands of federal workers and claiming that programs supported by most people are no longer needed, the democrats provide only the thinnest veneer of opposition when the public want them to step up.
The Trump administration is claiming that federal courts have no jurisdiction over the executive branch. This claim is a false one but if no one takes action that dubious assertion becomes true. Trump is true to his word in bringing about a reshaping of government that will allow him to do what he wants in any arena. On March 16 the Trump administrationās plan to send migrants to an El Salvador prison became a reality.
El Salvadorās U.S. puppet president Nayib Bukele offered to not only take in deportees from around the world but as Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained, āHe's also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they're U.S. citizens or legal residents." The comment immediately raised questions about the legality of such an action. Trump wasted no time in responding. "I'm just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat. I don't know if we do or not, we're looking at that right now."
The Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to send 300 Venezuelan nationals to Honduras and to El Salvadorās Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo prison (CECOT) despite the fact that federal judge James Boasberg had ordered they were not to be removed from the country. This same Alien Enemies Act was used to intern Japanese-Americans during World War II and is as dangerous now as it was in the 1940s.
The deported Venezuelans are allegedly members of a gang known as Tren de Agua which the Justice Department says is a terrorist organization. The Trump administration provides no proof that any of the individuals sent to Honduras and to El Salvador are members of Tren de Agua or that they have been charged, much less convicted, of any crime. Their unproven membership is said to make them deportable under the Alien Enemies Act. While Honduras began to repatriate the Venezuelan nationals sent there, El Salvador made quite a show of the men sent there, with a perp walk and head shaving to humiliate them all the more.
The men left the United States despite judge Boasbergās explicit instruction to keep them in the United States while he heard a challenge from five plaintiffs. The Trump Department of Justice appealed his decision but then ignored him completely and flew the men out of the country. They later claimed the planes were already in the air after he delivered his directive. Of course the planes could have returned at any time. But that isnāt what the Trump team wants and Bukele felt empowered to thumb his nose at the federal judiciary with a social media post that read, āOopsie ā¦ Too lateā
To his credit, Boasberg has demanded answers, even though the Justice Department claims that they donāt have to answer him. This behavior would put anyone else in the crosshairs of a contempt of court citation, as Boasberg said himself during a hearing. Trump and his supporters wasted no time in dismissing the role of the federal courts and claiming that his demands were grounds of impeachment.
Trump himself delivered a blistering attack on his Truth Social platform.
āThis Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President - He didnāt WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didnāt WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didnāt WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDNāT WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY. Iām just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judgesā I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DONāT WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!ā
John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, finally had enough and told Trump and his acolytes to slow their roll, as it were. āFor 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.ā
Boasberg is not the only judge whose orders have been ignored by the Trump administration. In a similar case Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese physician and professor at Brown University was deported despite having a work visa giving her legal permission to be in the United States. As in the case of the Venezuelan nationals, a judge ordered that she not be sent out of the country but Customs and Border Patrol ignored his order and removed her from the country after revoking her visa. After several days of silence the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Dr. Alawieh attended Hassan Nasrallahās funeral and had photos on her phone that were āsympathetic to Hezbollah.ā
Judges have ruled that the shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was unconstitutional. In other cases judges have ruled that fired federal workers have to be rehired. But the administration pushes back and it isnāt clear how it will be forced to do what it publicly says it wonāt do.
Every legal expert says that sending U.S. citizens to an El Salvador prison would be illegal and unconstitutional. But if the administration is not sanctioned we may well see that happen. It doesnāt matter if an act is illegal but goes unpunished. Black people know this better than any other group. Murder is illegal in every jurisdiction but the police kill more than 1,200 people every year. Investigations are rare, and prosecutions and guilty verdicts are so unlikely as to be causes for celebration when they do occur.
If the cases of Dr. Alawieh and the Venezuelan nationals are not decided in their favor, we shouldnāt be surprised if Trump sends U.S. citizens to CECOT in El Salvador. If the Trump administration can lie to federal judges about not knowing about their orders in one case, they can lie in another. It would seem that the federal judiciary is now the only institution which has the power to stop unconstitutional power grabs.
The inertia we see among Democratic Party leaders, the respect for tradition and reluctance to take on other governmental institutions is probably prevalent among the federal judiciary as well. The question must be who can we count on in a country that was never as respectful of rules of law as it claims. The people can follow judgesā arguments and decision but must also prepare to defend themselves. If not, Venezuelan migrants wonāt be the only people sent to Salvadoran prisons.
Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.
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