Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Trump administration would “absolutely” continue to remove undocumented Venezuelan immigrants on deportation flights despite a ruling from a federal judge ordering them to pause their efforts.
“These are foreign terrorists, that the president has identified them, and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act,” Bondi said Monday during an appearance on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday temporarily blocked President Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which would grant him the authority to detain and deport individuals of countries deemed foreign adversaries with little due process.
Bondi ripped Boasberg for attempting “to meddle” in foreign affairs.
“He can’t do it,” she told guest host Jeanine Pirro, adding that “what he’s done is an intrusion on the president’s authority.
“You know, this one federal judge again thinks he can control foreign policy for the entire country, and he cannot,” the attorney general said.
The Trump administration said Sunday that it had removed nearly 300 members of the Tren De Aragua gang, which were designated as terrorists in the recent court order.
“All of the planes subject to the written order of this judge departed U.S. soil, U.S. territory before the judge’s written order,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Boasberg issued an oral order to turn the planes around at approximately 6:45 p.m. EDT while the information was posted to the court’s docket at 7:26 p.m. EDT, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the administration over their removal efforts against five Venezuelans.
Trump’s team has refused to share the details on the flight timelines with the judge and other top officials have defended the president’s moves.
“It is without doubt the most unlawful order a judge has issued in our lifetimes,” Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters on Monday.
“A district court judge has no authority to direct the national security operations of the executive branch,” he continued. “The president has operated the absolute apex of his constitutional authority.”
Border czar Tom Homan also made remarks slamming federal immigration rulings across the board.
“I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care,” he said Monday during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
The Trump administration is currently looking to have the case regarding Venezuelan immigrants reassigned to a different judge after citing conflicts with Boasberg’s order.
“Right now, we’re evaluating our options,” Bondi told Fox News on Monday.
