Politics
Do unparalleled abuses demand unparalleled solutions?
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele earned thanks from President Donald Trump for receiving 261 deportees from the U.S., including members of the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua, into his country’s prison system. In a cinematic montage shared on social media Sunday, deportees are pushed around all the way from plane to cell.
The viral clip came a day after Trump issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against the notorious Venezuelan gang. The law grants the president the authority to detain or deport non-citizens from enemy nations during times of declared war or invasion, based solely on their nationality and without the need for a hearing.
Critics suggest that applying the law to the current context is unprecedented, raising concerns about due process and the potential misuse of presidential powers. Furthermore, District Judge James Boasberg’s order to halt the deportation flights, which the administration claims came after planes departed to El Salvador, has led to accusations that the judge is abusing his authority and should be impeached, a proposition that provoked rare public pushback from Chief Justice John Roberts.
Responding to criticisms of the president’s decision, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a letter,
The written order and the administration’s actions do not conflict. Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear—federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion.
“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,” Leavitt added.
Luis Atencio, a Venezuelan-American political analyst in South Florida, commented to The American Conservative, “We cannot celebrate the deportations of those who we cannot confirm are criminals.”
“Is this administration looking to actually improve the perception of public safety or are they looking to get a viral video?” Atencio asked. “The presence of non-criminal, non-TdA individuals being deported leaves many questions and doubts. A president who violates due process for anyone, anywhere is proving to disregard the Fifth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution.”
“As this situation progresses we have already been able to confirm that Francisco Javier García, has been unduly categorized as a TdA member and is in El Salvador,” Atencio added. “He is a barber with a clean record both in the U.S. and Venezuela and has been deported to a maximum security prison for criminals because he had tattoos. This is not the ‘border protection’ anyone is looking for.”
To this particular critique, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has responded by saying in an interview with Fox News’ Guy Benson:
First of all,