Border czar on Alien Enemies Act deportations: Will wait for DOJ, the courts to 'fight this out'
Trump administration border czar Tom Homan signaled Wednesday that deportations of migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act will continue, but clarified that he will obey a judge's orders and let the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the courts "fight this out,"
“I’ll wait 'til the DOJ and the courts fight this out as far as the Alien Enemies Act [and] how far we will go," he told NewsNation's Chris Cuomo. "But my comment was, 'You’re not gonna stop deportation flights, you're not going to stop the arrest of gang members and you're not gonna stop the arrest of [Tren de Aragua members]."
“We can hold TdAs up to six months before we remove them, so my comment there is we are gonna keep doing what we are doing,” he added.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued an order over the weekend that three flights, carrying hundreds of Venezuelan migrants the Trump administration alleges are members of criminal gangs, including TdA, needed to be turned around.
Boasberg’s directive drew backlash from the president and his allies as he blocked the administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport the migrants. The judge, an appointee of former President Obama, is seeking more information about the flights that took off from the U.S. and if they were in violation of his previous directive.
The DOJ has argued that the administration was in compliance since the planes had already departed the U.S. airways when the order was issued.
Trump, in response to Boasberg's pressure, called for the federal judge to be impeached. The move drew a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
During an interview earlier this week on "Fox & Friends," Homan suggested that he did not care about the judge’s order and vowed the deportations, part of Trump's sweeping immigration agenda, will proceed.
“I’m proud to be a part of this administration. We’re not stopping,” he said on Monday. “I don’t care what the judges think, I don’t care what the left thinks, we’re coming.”
Homan reiterated to NewsNation Wednesday that he would let the DOJ and the courts "fight this out and well see where we go from there."
"We're not gonna stop what we are doing. We are gonna keep targeting the worst of the worst," the border czar added.
He also claimed that the flights were full of U.S.-designated terrorists and MS-13 gang members.
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