‘I understand this case is in litigation through the Alien Enemies Act, and we’ll abide by the court order as litigated,’ Homan said.
The Trump administration will not defy a federal judge’s orders on its deportation flights of Venezuelan nationals, border czar Tom Homan said on March 23.
In an interview with Jonathan Karl of ABC’s “This Week,” Homan pushed back on claims by some legal experts that the administration is defying judicial decisions and said the Venezuelans who were deported had been given due process according to U.S. laws.
“We’re going to continue to deport them from the United States. I understand this case is in litigation through the Alien Enemies Act, and we’ll abide by the court order as litigated,” Homan said.
The border czar confirmed that the administration will abide by court orders as it goes through the appeal process, but in the meantime, immigration officials will continue to “concentrate on those who are the biggest threat to our communities, their public safety” based on U.S. code Title 8 authority, which grants the federal government authority to deport under specific criteria.
On March 15, the Trump administration deported more than 250 Venezuelan nationals accused of being members of either the Tren de Aragua or MS-13 gangs. That same day, a federal judge ordered the flights to cease after several anonymous Venezuelans filed an emergency bid to block their deportations.
The administration has since been in a back-and-forth with the court, with the judge ordering more information on the timing of the flights and the status of those on board and the Justice Department pushing back, suggesting it may invoke the state secrets privilege, which shields sensitive national security details from being disclosed in civil litigation.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg called the administration’s response “woefully insufficient” last week and suggested the state secrets privilege may not be relevant since Secretary of State Marco Rubio had posted information about the flights on social media platform X.
On Sunday, Karl asked Homan about Jerce Reyes Barrios, 36, a professional soccer player whose attorneys say he was misidentified as a Tren de Aragua member in part because he had a tattoo of a crown over a soccer ball and the Spanish word for God: “Dios.” Karl said the soccer player had been deported to a prison in El Salvador, where he had limited access to his attorneys, who say he has no criminal record.
By Jacob Burg
