āBorder czarā Tom Homan says the Trump administrationās mass deportations will not stop ā even after a federal judge blocked the president from invoking the 18th-centuryĀ Alien Enemies ActĀ to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a hearing.
The Trump administration flew roughly 250 alleged migrant gangbangers to El Salvadorās mega prison Saturday, defying US District Judge James Boasberg order to turn the planes around.
But Homan told Fox News Monday morning the Trump administration isnāt going to follow the order.
āTheyāre not gonna stop us. We made a promise to the American people, President Trump has made a promise to the American people, weāre gonna make this country safe again,ā said a stone-faced Homan.
āWeāre not stopping. I donāt care what the judges think, I donāt care what the left thinks, weāre coming,ā he added.
The flights transported 238 members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, along with 21 MS-13 gangbangers, Salvadoran President Nayib BukeleĀ revealed Sunday morning.
Among the deportees were migrants accused of kidnapping, sexual abuse of a child, aggravated assault, prostitution and aggravated assault of a cop, a senior administration official told The Post.
However, officials did not provide names for any of the detainees.
Once in El Salvador, the suspected gangbangers were handed over to dozens of armed commandos who swiftly moved them to theĀ Terrorism Confinement CenterĀ (CECOT) with their heads down and hands and ankles in shackles, according to dramatic video posted by Bukele.
Boasberg ordered the administration to immediately halt deportations made under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which was last used during World War II to hold Japanese, German and Italian immigrants in internment camps.
āAny plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States however that is accomplished,ā Boasberg wrote, according to the Washington Post.
āMake sure itās complied with immediately.ā
However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt argued in an X post Monday that the administration didnāt ārefuse to complyā with Boasbergās order, arguing that the judge āhad no lawful basisā since the āterrorist TdA aliensā had already been deported.
āThe written order and the Administrationās actions do not conflict. Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear ā federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the Presidentās 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,ā said Leavitt.
āA single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrying foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,ā she said.
Trump signed an executive order in January classifying Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, making it easier for the feds to arrest and deport the gangbangers roaming the US.
The presidentās mass deportation effort has already yielded more than 32,000 arrests Ā ā 70% of them either facing charges or convicted of crimes, senior Homeland Security officials said last week.
The Department of Homeland Security has yet to disclose how many migrants have been deported since the sweeps commenced.