'This is war': Trump signals he's playing hardball with invocation of Alien Enemies Act, disappointment of Obama judge

The Trump administration made clear with two decisions over the weekend that it is now playing hardball when it comes to throwing terroristic illegal aliens out of the country and dealing with apparent judicial overreach.

Wartime measure

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing his secretary of state to ready foreign terrorist organization designations for Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, gangsters as well as other international organizations that "threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere."

Trump also directed his attorney general and the secretary of homeland security to:

take all appropriate action, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to make operation preparations regarding the implementation of any decision I make to invoke the Alien Enemies Act ... in relation to the existence of any qualifying invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States by a qualifying actor, and to prepare such facilities as necessary to expedite the removal of those who may be designated under this order.

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio named nine gangs and cartel organizations, including TDA and MS-13, to be designated as terror groups.

On Saturday, the president similarly went the distance, invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

'TdA is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.'

In the event of a declared war with a foreign nation or "any invasion or predatory incursion" perpetrated or attempted against the U.S., the president is enabled under this law to order the apprehension, restraint, detention, and removal of "all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nature or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized."

The Congressional Research Service noted that this particular law was enacted as part of a broader set of controversial national security measures known as the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Unlike the Alien Act and the Sedition Act, which did not ultimately survive, the Alien Enemies Act found no objection from either James Madison or Thomas Jefferson. The Supreme Court held that the absence of objection to the law by the generation that drafted the Constitution evidenced its constitutionality.

The first time the law was invoked was during the War of 1812. It was last used during World War II.

Citing his duty to protect the American people and his constitutional authority to do so, Trump declared that "TdA is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States. TdA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela."

"I proclaim that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies," added Trump.

When asked aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening whether he feels he is using the law appropriately, given that it was previously used only during times of war, Trump said, "Well, this is a time of war."

"Biden allowed millions of people, many of them criminals, many of them at the highest level. They emptied jails out — other nations emptied their jails into the United States. It's an invasion, and these are criminals," said Trump. "They invaded our country. In that sense, this is war."

Slow on the draw, Obama judge

Hours after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an Obama judge responding to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward ordered a pause to deportations under the 227-year-old law. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was, however, not fast enough.

Two planes loaded with apparent Tren de Aragua terrorists were apparently already airborne, one plane taking deportees to El Salvador and the other taking deportees to Honduras.

Rubio indicated that the Trump administration "sent 2 dangerous top MS-13 leaders plus 21 of its most wanted back to face justice in El Salvador. Also, as promised by @POTUS, we sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars."

Upon learning that they had already left the nation, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg impotently ordered that the planes be sent back to the U.S., reported ABC News.

'If the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that's a fight we are more than happy to take.'

"You shall inform your clients of this immediately: 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 said during a hearing on Saturday. "However that's accomplished, turning around the plane, or not embarking anyone on the plane. … This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately."

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele tweeted on Sunday morning, "Oopsie... Too late."

Bukele later shared footage to X Sunday showing alleged terrorists being hauled off airplanes, indicating that they were "immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center."

Critics clutched pearls over the Trump administration's deportation of alleged terrorists, claiming the president had flouted the Obama judge's orders.

Mark Zaid, a liberal attorney whose security clearance Trump revoked last month, wrote, "Court order defied. First of many as I've been warning and start of true constitutional crisis. Ultimately will lead to Trump impeachment proceedings."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that the "administration did not 'refuse to comply' with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory."

"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," continued Leavitt. "A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrying foreign alien terrorists who were expelled from U.S. soil."

Leavitt told Axios, which originally reported that the White House "defied a judge's order," that "if the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that's a fight we are more than happy to take."

In a Sunday court filing, government attorneys indicated that gang members subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act were ejected from the country before Boasberg issued his order and further noted that "going forward, and in the absence of appellate relief, Federal Defendants will continue to protect the United States using authorities other than the Proclamation."

Even though the initial narrative pushed by Axios and seized upon by Trump critics turned out to be wrong, the whining continued.

Steve Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, told the Associated Press that while Boasberg's verbal directive to turn around the planes was not part of his formal order, the Trump administration had still violated the "spirit" of the order, incentivizing "future courts to be hyper specific in their orders and not give the government any wiggle room."

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