What Price for Due Process?
On Monday, toward the end of another court hearing in the interminable Alien Enemies Act case, Trump DOJ lawyer Tiberius Davis haltingly issued a new threat to the Venezuelan nationals who were originally deported to El Salvador’s brutal CECOT prison: If you try to vindicate your due process rights, we might send you back to CECOT again or to another third country.
The warning came as U.S. District Judge James Boasberg considers what remedies are available to give the Venezuelans the due process they were denied when they were labeled Tren de Aragua gang members and rushed out of the country without notice or hearing in March 2025.
Among the remedies Boasberg is considering to allow the men a chance to remove the stain of being labeled alien enemies are (i) remote hearings from Venezuela or from third countries; or (ii) ordering the Trump administration to facilitate the former detainees’ return to the United States.
The ACLU’s Lee Gelernt, who represents the former detainees as a class, conceded that if any of the men do return they would probably be detained and put into immigration proceedings, but they could then pursue asylum claims while also vindicating their due process rights in the AEA case. The worst case scenario, Gelernt surmised, was they would be deported back to Venezuela but probably not to the most extreme of the far-flung third countries to which the administration has sent immigrants.
In response, Davis at first seemed to almost be quibbling with Gelernt, saying it’s not a “major point,” but then warning that even if the men are in asylum proceedings they can still be sent to third countries and that a return to CECOT was not out of the question. Davis then seemed to try to soften the threat by noting that the one-year agreement the United States struck with El Salvador last March soon lapses and that no one has been sent to CECOT from the U.S. since then.
Still, the Trump administration’s position is that, of the range of possible remedies, facilitating the men’s return is the “least problematic,” Davis said, especially compared to remote hearings from third countries. But that is only if the administration is forced to provide any remedies at all, which it continues to insist is beyond Boasberg’s power to order.
Boasberg, who said he expects to rule on remedies by next week, was sardonic about whatever he does being immediately appealed by DOJ, which came into the hearing threatening exactly that. “I’m not going to rule today,” Boasberg said. “They may appeal anyway today because that seems to be the MO in this case.”
Must Read
Politico’s Kyle Cheney documents the Trump administration’s pattern of defying court orders, spiriting immigrants out of jurisdictions, and giving bad or incomplete information to judges in hundreds of newly filed habeas cases.
Mass Deportation Watch
- An immigration court blocked the deportation of Tufts student Rumeysa Öztürk, the Turkish national who was swiped off a city street by masked federal agents in a operation caught on video, after finding last month that DHS had not proved she should be removed.
- The Trump administration’s immigration courts suddenly began fast-tracking dozens of cases by Somalis seeking asylum in what their lawyers fear is a coordinated effort to deny them asylum and deport them without due process, NPR reports.
- The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed President Trump to proceed with ending deportation protections for more than 60,000 migrants from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua, when it stayed a lower court ruling that had blocked the deportations.
So Effing Gross
It’s tougher for Republicans to rile their base about the southern border when they control the White House, so Texas Republicans have reverted to Islamophobia as their xenophobia of choice for the midterm elections, the NYT reports in a story headlined with exceptional clarity: Without a Border ‘Invasion,’ Texas G.O.P. Turns to an Old Enemy, Islam
Jan. 6 Lives On, Part 1
In a series of moves, the Trump DOJ began abandoning the prosecution of Steve Bannon, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to the House Jan. 6 committee.
- Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the House’s subpoena of Bannon “improper.”
- U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court, where Bannon’s appeal of his conviction was pending, that the Trump administration had determined “in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice.”
- D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro moved to dismiss the case in federal district court.
All of these moves are, as NBC News notes, “largely symbolic” since Bannon already served four months in prison for his conviction.
Jan. 6 Lives On, Part II
President Donald Trump has directed U.S. spy agencies to share sensitive intelligence about the 2020 election with his former campaign lawyer, Kurt Olsen, who is known for pushing debunked theories of electoral fraud and is now a temporary government employee in the White House, Politico reports.
Jan. 6 Lives On, Part III
A state judge in Georgia made clear his frustrations with the FBI’s seizure last week of Fulton County’s 2020 voting records, the NYT reports. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney, who has been presiding for years over litigation brought by Trump allies pushing the Big Lie, expressed his frustration with asides in rulings Monday:
- “We are left to hope that the bureau and the Department of Justice handle the ballots and related records with the care required to preserve and protect their integrity.”
- The ballots “were, until recently, here in Fulton County. Now, however, they are somewhere else. Where exactly the court cannot say.”
Great Point
Adam Klasfeld turns an arched eyebrow to the coverage of the Big Lie video that President Trump shared last week which ended with a depiction of the Obamas as apes:
Coverage of the video focused on the overt racism of the video’s final moments, either ignoring the election lies that preceded the ending or treating it as an unrelated detail.
That ignores crucial context: Racism was always the lifeblood of Trump’s Big Lie.
Trump to DOJ: More Politicization NOW!
With President Trump complaining about a lack of vindictive prosecutions, DOJ leaders are pressuring the Weaponization Working Group “to deliver results in the coming weeks,” including producing its first report, NBC News reports.
38th Lawless Boat Strike
Two people were killed and a lone survivor left to flounder in the 38th unlawful U.S. attack on an alleged drug-smuggling boat. After the latest attack, in the eastern Pacific, the U.S. military said it summoned the Coast Guard to begin search-and-rescue operations for the survivor. It’s unclear whether post-strike search-and-rescue operations are viable at the distances and in the time frames involved in that expanse of ocean.
The Retribution: Blue States Edition
In another lawless swipe at blue states, the Trump HHS is planning to withhold from four blue states — California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota — some $600 million in federal grants already approved by Congress for public health programs, including HIV and STI prevention.
RIP Endangerment Finding
In the culmination of a years-long climate deregulation campaign, the Trump administration is poised this week to reverse the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding that is the foundation for the federal regulation of greenhouse gases.
What New Madness Is This?
In another bullying move against Canada, President Trump made wild threats on social media to bar the opening of the soon-to-be-completed Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Canada.
In a mad king diatribe, Trump said: “I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve.”
The NYT story on the threats contains this choice aside:
The nearby Ambassador Bridge, one of the busiest border crossings on the continent, has been privately owned for decades by a Detroit trucking industry billionaire and his family, the Morouns. The family had previously called on Mr. Trump to halt the construction of the Gordie Howe bridge — which would, once opened, compete for the more than $300 million in daily cross-border trade over the Ambassador Bridge.
On social media, Trump took things a step further, with an extortion threat. Trump’s price for opening the Canadian-built-and-paid-for bridge: The U.S. “should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset.”
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