WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan doubled down on the administration’s mass deportation campaign on Monday, saying he plans to continue the aggressive roundups and removals despite court rulings and injunctions halting them.
“We’re not stopping,” Homan told Fox News in an interview. “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”
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The Trump administration has deported as many as 300 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act despite Chief U.S. Judge James Boasberg’s order in Washington, D.C., blocking the flights under the 1798 law last wielded during World War II.
Boasberg’s order Saturday came after Trump issued a proclamation, which he had signed the day before, targeting Tren de Aragua members for immediate deportations under the 18th century law. Trump‘s order said the gang “continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens.”
Homan’s comments to Fox came as a legal and political showdown looms over whether the Trump administration can continue to deport suspected gang members in the United States in apparent defiance of court orders. A Brown University kidney doctor was also flown out of the country.
The Trump administration says the suspected Tren de Aragua members are being deported on national security concerns. But lawyers say they have not been given due process, and legal questions about the weekend activity is the focus of court battles on Monday and expected throughout the week.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that the Trump administration paid El Salvador $6 million to accept 261 alleged Venezuelan gang members deported from the United States over the weekend. At a briefing, she also said the administration complied with Judge Boasberg’s order, arguing the Venezuelans were deported before the judge’s written order was released.
When pressed about a verbal order from the same judge that came earlier, Leavitt cited legal “questions” whether a verbal order carries the same weight as a written order.
By the order of the President ‘we did the right thing’
Homan appeared to go further than that during his cable TV appearance, saying that he was personally involved in the removal effort and that he made the call to continue sending the prisoners to El Salvador because they were already in international waters.
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At Boasberg’s 5 p.m. hearing on Saturday, he expanded his order to block the deportation of any Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act. The judge said during the hearing that “any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.”
Boasberg’s oral order to turn around planes headed to other countries came between 6:45 p.m. and 6:48 p.m. Eastern, according to lawyers representing nearly 300 Venezuelans.
By then, Homan told Fox News, the flights were already in international waters, heading down to El Salvador.
“We’re outside the borders of the United States,” he said. “I’m the border czar. Once you’re outside the border, you know, it is what it is.”
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‘Review of this issue was at the highest level I’ve seen’
Homan also discussed the deportation flights with reporters outside the White House on Monday, saying Americans should praise the administration for its work.
“We removed terrorists. That should be a celebration. We removed terrorists from this country,” he said. “I stand by what the president did.”
Asked by a reporter how the administration determined if an individual was a terrorist, Homan said: “Through various investigations.”
Homan declined to provide details, saying that because many methods used to make such determinations are “law enforcement sensitive, I’m not going to share all that with you.”
But he said the individuals’ social media use, as well as criminal records in the U.S. and abroad, also has been used.
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During his Fox News interview, Homan also indicated that the White House and Department of Homeland Security planned to keep the deportation effort going despite rulings from the bench.
“You’re going against the judges now, what’s next?” Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones asked Homan.
“Another flight” Homan said. “Another flight every day.”
Homan also said teams of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would continue to be out every day, “in the neighborhoods of this nation arresting criminal illegal aliens, public safety threats and national security threats. They’re not going to stop us.”
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