Apparently, the answer is El Salvador and that’s not good. The administration ignored a ruling by the judge to turn the planes en route to El Salvador around. “Sorry, too late!” Wut? Excuse me?
The timeline for this whole thing is fascinating. What SHOULD have been done was NOT done. There were still planes in the air when he ruled and they did NOT turn around. This *seems* to ignore the judge’s ruling. The Justice Department played fast and loose with what they were told. Now they are facing the music.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg demanded to know why the planes hadn’t turned around per his ruling. This afternoon he told a DOJ attorney that he expects the government to submit by tomorrow afternoon a litany of questions about the exportations. He also ordered DOJ attorney Abhbishek Kambli to explain WHY he thinks the information cannot be shared publicly as he claimed.
He was also told that having the planes turn around was part of his oral order, not his written one. That’s splitting hairs and this could become very interesting. The administration feels that it didn’t violate Boasberg’s ruling. Let’s look at the timeline. Ah, here we go.
March 15 at 7:26 p.m.
The judge’s written order is posted to the online federal docket system known as PACER, according to the lawyers who sued the Trump administration. The written order is a formalized version of what the judge said during the hearing. He wrote: “As discussed in today’s hearing, the Court ORDERS that… The Government is ENJOINED from removing” from the country any non-citizens in US custody who are covered by Trump’s proclamation about the Alien Enemies Act. The brief written order did not specifically include language about turning flights around.
March 15 at 7:36 p.m.
The first flight carrying non-citizens for deportation, GlobalX Flight 6143, arrives in Comayagua, Honduras (refuel, I think), according to FlightRadar24. The lawyers who sued the Trump administration pointed out that this and the other flights landed after the judge – both verbally and in writing – ordered the government to turn around any planes.
March 15 at 7:37 p.m.
The third flight carrying non-citizens for deportation, GlobalX Flight 6122, departs from Harlingen, Texas, according to FlightRadar24.
March 16 around 3:46 p.m.
The Justice Department submits a notice to the judge, acknowledging his rulings, but also saying some people were already deported. The notice said, “Some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory under the Proclamation before the issuance of this Court’s second order,” specifically referring to Boasberg’s written ruling posted to the docket at 7:26 pm.
I did skip some of the timeline as it was not particularly relevant to the specifics I was talking about. But pretty interesting, huh? What do you think, some hair-splitting going on there? But it speaks loudly to the administration ignoring the judge’s order. Now true, it’s not *exactly* ignoring but it’s damn close.
What worries me about this is that the Justice Department *could* ignore a judge’s order and nothing much could be done about it. Congress has already collapsed. We don’t need the judicial branch to collapse and leave tRump in charge of *everything*. Let’s not even go down that road yet. I’m not ready for nightmares. I’m not ready to try and figure out how we could move. I *do* think there’s some hope, but will it be enough?
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🤬💲 One of the parts of this story that is not covered enough, and stinks like yesterday’s diapers. is the money changing hands!! This administration wants to starve school kids and seniors and veterans and the disabled…we can’t afford it!! But, it is paying El Salvador $6M a year to imprison these people. We sent 300 people and, at $6M/year, that’s $1667/month for each prisoner being housed on concrete slabs with no blankets and little food! According to information for expats moving to El Salvador, one can live very comfortably on $1200/month!! Sphincter Face makes another bad deal with our taxpayer money!! 💲🤬
I’m not sure I knew about the money part, but I know you research so you’re absolutely correct. tRump has gotten crazy over the whole immigration story. GAH.