A federal judge in Washington plans to press the Trump administration at a hearing on Monday about whether it has violated an order he issued barring officials from removing any detained noncitizens — including several suspected Venezuelan gang members — from the country with little or no due process.
The hearing was scheduled by the judge, James E. Boasberg, even as President Trump’s so-called border czar, Tom Homan, made defiant remarks on television, indicating that the administration planned to continue such deportations despite the court’s order — an action that could thrust the country into a constitutional crisis, pitting one of the coequal branches of the government against another.
“We’re not stopping,” Mr. Homan said Monday, during an appearance on Fox News. “I don’t care what the judges think, I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”
Mr. Homan defended the administration’s decision to fly more than 200 immigrants to El Salvador over the weekend, including individuals the government identified as members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. He added that the public should expect more deportation flights “every day.”
The legal battle over the removal of the immigrants was the latest — and perhaps most serious — flashpoint yet between federal courts, which have sought to curb many of Mr. Trump’s recent executive actions, and an administration that has repeatedly come close to openly refusing to comply with judicial orders.
Mr. Trump himself expressed skepticism about a ruling last week by a federal judge in California ordering the administration to rehire thousands of fired probationary workers. Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday night that the judge was “putting himself in the position of the president of the United States, who was elected by close to 80 million votes.”
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