Trump administration updates: Schumer continues to face calls for new leadership
The Senate minority leader says he's not going anywhere.
Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday he has no plans to step aside as Senate minority leader as criticism of Schumer and of Democrats' ineffectiveness in combatting President Donald Trump's agenda continues.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration sent another group of migrants to Guantanamo Bay, alleging many are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua, an official with knowledge of the flight told ABC News. But deportation flights of Venezuelans to El Salvador remain on hold while the administration fights a judge's order to curtail those flights while their legality is decided.
Trump on Friday announced a new F-47 fighter jet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and signed a series of presidential actions before departing the White House for his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The actions included one rescinding the security clearances of several former Biden officials and political opponents.
Latest headlines:
- Schumer says he’s not stepping down amid calls for new leadership
- GOP Sen. Curtis: Impeachment of Boasberg ‘not going to happen’
- Usha Vance to visit Greenland
- White House backtracks on Trump statement that he didn't sign Alien Enemies Act order
- Trump administration deports Venezuelans to Guantanamo Bay, official says
Trump border czar defends deportation flights: 'I don't care what the judges think'
White House border czar Tom Homan defended the administration's decision not to comply with a federal judge's order to turn around deportation flights in the air during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" on Monday morning.
"It wasn't until this flight was already [in] international waters heading down to El Salvador that the judge made some comment about returning the flights. We are already in international waters. We are outside the borders of the United States. I'm the border czar. Once you are outside the border, you know, it is what it is," Homan said.
Homan said that there would be "another flight every day" when asked about what's next for immigration efforts.
"We are going to make this country safe again. I wake up every morning loving my job because I work for the greatest president in the history of my life. And we are going to make this country safe again. I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don't care what the judges think. I don't care what the Left thinks. We're coming," Homan said.
-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart
Trump says 'this is a time of war' amid legal battle over deportations
President Donald Trump said his lawyers would have to answer questions about his administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act, but added that the U.S. was in a "time of war."
When asked aboard Air Force One on Sunday whether the administration deliberately violated a federal judge's order barring deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, Trump said he didn't know if the order was violated: "You have to speak to the lawyers."
Trump added that he felt he was using the Alien Enemies Act appropriately despite the fact it has never been invoked in peacetime, saying, "this is a time of war," and citing the Biden administration's immigration policies.
-ABC News' Nicholas Kerr
White House asks court to stay temporary block on deportation flights
The Trump administration has asked the D.C. Circuit Court for a stay of District Judge James Boasberg’s ruling that temporarily blocked the government from deporting Venezuelans using the Alien Enemies Act.
The White House contends that Boasberg lacked jurisdiction to enter the temporary restraining order, which the administration describes in a filing to the appellate court as “unprecedented.”
“This Court should halt this massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove people that Defendants had determined to be members of [Tren de Aragua], a group the President and the Secretary of State have found to be a threat to national security. This Court should halt this unprecedented intrusion upon the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens who pose grave threats to the American people,” wrote a DOJ attorney in an emergency motion for a stay.
The government argues that Trump’s actions in invoking the AEA “are not subject to judicial review” and that there was “no lawful basis” for the court to enjoin the implementation of the president’s proclamation.
“If this TRO is allowed to stand,” the DOJ writes, “district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action upon bare receipt of a complaint.”
The D.C. Circuit ordered a response to the emergency motion to stay be filed by Tuesday at 5 p.m. by the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the underlying case.
-ABC News’ James Hill
Did Venezuelans’ deportation flights violate a judge’s order
The Trump administration has sent hundreds of Venezuelans -- alleged Tren de Aragua gang members -- to El Salvador, raising questions whether the deportations violated a federal judge’s order that temporarily blocked their removal under the administration invoking the Alien Enemies Act.
During a hearing Saturday evening, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., enjoined the removals of any Venezuelans already in U.S. custody and covered by the AEA proclamation, until further briefing over the administration’s use of the act.
Included in Boasberg’s oral ruling was an order that the government turn around any planes carrying people covered by the order that were in the air. During the hearing, the plaintiffs, represented by ACLU and Democracy Forward, told the court that they understood there to be at least two flights in the air heading for Honduras and El Salvador.
On Sunday, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted a video of officials in the country receiving 238 members of Tren de Aragua. “Oopsie, Too late,” Bukele posted on X in response to an article from the New York Post about Boasberg’s order to turn the flights around.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked Bukele on X for receiving the migrants.
“We have sent 2 dangerous top MS-13 leaders plus 21 of its most wanted back to face justice in El Salvador,” Rubio said. “Also, as promised by @POTUS, we sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars.”
Bukele said the migrants that arrived from the U.S. will be transferred to its Terrorism Confinement Center for “a period of one year.”
-ABC News’ Laura Romero, Katherine Faulders, Ely Brown and Peter Charalambous