For ads-free news, click here.
From the Daily Caller: CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Monday that President Donald Trump may not have defied a federal judge’s order that temporarily blocked the deportations of hundreds of Venezuelan gang members to South America.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg blocked the deportations Saturday, though he was told there were already two planes in the air en route to El Salvador and Honduras. While the White House has denied defying Boasberg’s order, Honig added that the administration may not have violated the order if the planes had already landed or had been outside of U.S. territory.
“They came right close to the line and maybe over it and let me give you the specific details we need to know in order to make this determination,” Honig said. “At the moment the judge gave the order, he said in court on Saturday afternoon, ‘I want you to not fly anyone out of here or if flights are already in the air I want you to turn them around.’ At that very moment, where were the airplanes? If they were already on the ground in the United States, then yes, there was a defiance of the order. If they had already landed in El Salvador, then no, there was no defiance of the order, it was already too late.”
“If they are mid-flight, then we get into questions of where were they? Were they over American territory or international waters? And that’s some grey area. That may give the Trump administration something to hang their hat on,” Honig continued.
Honig also indicated that the law is likely on the Trump administration’s side.
“What the law says is it actually gives the president very broad discretion to deport non-citizens in two scenarios: one, if there’s a declared war with the other country, of course, that’s not the case. We’re not in any declared war right now,” Honig explained.
“Or second, if there’s an invasion by a foreign government. Now the Trump administration has argued that this gang, TdA (Tren de Agua)’s presence in the United States is essentially an invasion and they’re also arguing that even though this is a gang, they’re sort of aligned or inseparable from the Venezuelan government. I think both of those are aggressive, novel arguments that they’ll be making to the court,” he continued.
WATCH BELOW:
Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter.)
The DML News App: www.X.com/DMLNewsApp
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
