Trump judges pump brakes so far on Alien Enemies Act deportations to El Salvador
CNN
The centerpiece of Donald Trump’s hardline attempts to deport undocumented immigrants using a wartime power has been met with resistance by federal courts, including among judges Trump himself has appointed.
The centerpiece of Donald Trump’s hardline attempts to deport undocumented immigrants using a wartime power has been met with resistance by federal courts, including among judges Trump himself has appointed. The latest, on Monday, was district Judge Stephanie Haines, presiding over a federal court in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The administration argued to Haines that it should be able to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants from the US with little advance notice. Haines had already temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending suspected Tren de Aragua gang members from Venezuela to El Salvador if they were held in a facility in her district, in Central Pennsylvania, where there is a hub for immigration detainees for the northeastern US. On Monday, she didn’t rule on whether he prohibition should last longer, or say if she would allow the administration to use the wartime law for detainees being moved through Pennsylvania. Yet she asked the Justice Department several questions about why they thought it was sufficient for detainees to have a fewer-than-two-day window to challenge the Alien Enemies Act once they’re told they may be sent to El Salvador. In addition to Haines, another Trump-appointed trial-level judge, in South Texas, ruled last week that removals under the Alien Enemies Act weren’t lawful. Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., who joined the bench in Texas in 2018, decided the president alone couldn’t deem the US was being threatened or invaded by Venezuelans and declare undocumented immigrants from the country alien enemies. The ruling was the first to block the administration’s use of the law after weighing the case in full.

Janet Mills and her allies are counting on a gender gap to narrow Platner’s wide lead ahead of the June 9 primary to decide who will face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. They are betting that the unfiltered style that has brought Platner widespread attention as someone who could help Democrats reach young men will backfire with women.

As a shrinking number of Transportation Security Administration agents work to keep hourslong security lines moving despite not being paid, President Donald Trump stepped into the fray Saturday, announcing he will send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports by Monday if Congress doesn’t agree to a plan to end the partial government shutdown.











