The administration of **U.S.** President Donald Trump ignored a federal judge’s order Saturday temporarily barring the president’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members. The judge also ordered any planes that had already taken off carrying immigrants under the act turn around.
However, flight records show that at least one plane took off after the judge had already made his order, while two more that were already in the air at the time continued, although it remains unclear which of the planes were carrying immigrants deported under the act. All three planes landed in El Salvador, where the deported migrants were taken to the country’s infamously brutal “Terrorism Confinement Center.” ([Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/03/16/deportation-flights-trump-el-salvador/))
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made two arguments in her statement yesterday denying that the Trump administration had refused to comply with the judge’s order. The first is that the immigrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act were already outside U.S. territory when the order was issued, suggesting that the order did not apply to them. The second argument is that federal courts “have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs.”
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