'Oopsie, Too Late:' Behind a New Deportation Controversy

Sunday saw one of the most dramatic developments yet on the deportation front: President Trump invoked a rarely used law to deport Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador. The move came after a federal judge issued a ruling against the deportations and ordered that any planes carrying the immigrants out of the country be turned around. Instead, two planes landed in El Salvador, prompting a mocking retort from that nation's president, Nayib Bukele, on social media: "Oopsie ... too late." The fallout:

• Axios reports that White House officials discussed whether to turn the planes around when the ruling came down, but administration lawyers advised it didn't apply because the aircraft were over international waters at the time. The unusual deportation had been quietly organized by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

• The White House further argues that the judge's ruling didn't apply because Trump has broad authority under the Alien Enemies Act of 1789, per the New York Times. "A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from US soil," said press secretary Karoline Leavitt. (It was not clear why she referenced an aircraft carrier.) The act has previously been used only in wartime, most famously for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
• The Washington Post reports that 137 deportees were on the two planes. The White House says they included dangerous members of the Tren de Aragua gang, but the specifics about all those on board were not immediately clear. El Salvador's Bukele also posted a three-minute video of their arrival in his country.
• The legal fight over what transpired might well end up in the Supreme Court. "Court order defied. First of many as I've been warning and start of true constitutional crisis," tweeted national security attorney and Trump critic Mark S. Zaid. But a senior White House official countered that the White House welcomes the fight, with officials there confident the court would back Trump's desire to invoke the act more frequently.

(More deportation stories.)