Connect with us

Politics

Judge weighs 1960s British invasion amid Trump’s deportation crackdown

Published

on

A federal judge hearing arguments Thursday over President Donald Trump’s use of an 18th-century wartime law to deport Venezuelan gang members had a question: Could a president use the same law against a “British invasion” that was corrupting young minds?

Jennifer Walker Elrod, chief judge of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, said her query — a reference to the moral panic in the 1960s over the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands — was “fanciful,” but a government attorney responded that the president did have that power and courts could not stop him.

“These sort of questions of foreign affairs and the security of the nation are specifically political issues,” said Drew Ensign, an assistant attorney general who was arguing the administration’s case before the full 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ensign said it would be up to Congress to check the president in that scenario.

The unexpected and cheeky exchange came in the administration’s appeal of a ruling by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit, one of the most conservative courts in the country, that found Trump inappropriately used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 when he targeted the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua last year.

The act has only been invoked three other times in American history, during the War of 1812 and both world wars. A majority of the three-judge panel agreed in last year’s ruling with multiple lower court judges and immigration lawyers who brought the case that it cannot be deployed against a gang rather than a belligerent foreign power.

The administration appealed to the full 5th Circuit, and all 17 judges on the court were present for the arguments in New Orleans on Thursday.

“Tren de Aragua is committing ordinary crimes that are being dealt with by law enforcement,” Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the ACLU, told the judges. “The Alien Enemies Act is about wartime and it’s about the military.”

Several of the judges were concerned about second-guessing the president’s determination of a threat to the country. Ensign noted the law allows it to be invoked in attempts of “invasion” or “predatory incursion” and argued that courts should accept a president’s declaration that that is happening.

“A predatory incursion is less than an invasion,” Ensign said, arguing that cases involving other laws have determined it happens when foreign fishing boats enter U.S. waters. He also noted that Trump alleged the gang was acting at the behest of recently ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government — an assertion that has been challenged by some law enforcement analysts.

It’s unclear when the circuit will issue its ruling, and the final decision on the constitutionality of Trump’s action will likely be made by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nation’s highest court has already had to wade into the tangled legal saga of Trump’s invocation of the act twice before. His administration used the act to fly 252 Venezuelans from the United States to a notorious prison in El Salvadorwhere it contended that U.S. judges had no authority. The Supreme Court ruled that anyone else the administration tried to remove under the act needed a “reasonable” opportunity to challenge their designation as a gang member in court.

The following month, as the administration hurried to prepare another flight from Texas, the high court issued an unusual midnight ruling halting flights. It also barred removals under the act until the 5th Circuit could sort out the proper procedures. The high court never weighed in on the constitutionality of Trump’s use of the act, giving the 5th Circuit first crack at that question as well.

Read More

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

A battle over the truth erupts after deadly Minneapolis shooting

Published

on

In the wake of another fatal shooting involving immigration agents, Trump administration and Minnesota officials are locked in a heated dispute over what exactly transpired and who’s to blame for the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.

And they don’t just disagree in their interpretation of the events — they fundamentally differ on how the shooting transpired and what exactly triggered it.

Border Patrol agents shot and killed Pretti on Saturday during a tense encounter between observers and federal agents, a dynamic that has led to several violent interactions as the Trump administration escalates its nationwide immigration crackdown. His death comes less than a month after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good. The scenes of the shootings were roughly two miles apart, and protesters flooded the streets after both.

Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino on Sunday accused Pretti of having “injected” himself into a law enforcement investigation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti had committed a “felony” by impeding law enforcement. And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche blamed local state officials for what he called an “entirely avoidable” event.

People gather at the intersection of 27th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis after a federal officer shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, 2026.A person is tackled by a federal agent amid protests following a shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan 24, 2026.Protesters react in the street along Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis after a man was fatally shot by a federal agent, on Jan 24, 2026.

But Minnesota officials see a different story in the footage. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was lawfully armed and exercising his constitutional rights, and Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the video shows him holding a cellphone and helping a woman up, not acting aggressively toward agents.

Shortly after Saturday’s shooting, Noem offered one account of the incident: She said Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and that he “violently resisted” when the officers attempted to disarm him.

Noem then told Fox News Sunday that agents on Saturday “clearly feared for their lives” before shooting Pretti. She and other federal officials have claimed that Pretti was approaching agents with a gun.

“We do know that he came to that scene and impeded a law enforcement operation, which is against federal law. It’s a felony. When he did that, interacting with those agents when they tried to get him to disengage, he became aggressive and resisted them throughout that process,” Noem said. “These officers used their training, followed their protocols and were in fear of their lives and the people around them.”

But Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti held a concealed carry license and was exercising his constitutional right.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference in the National Response Coordination Center at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters in Washington, Jan. 24, 2026.Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara speaks during a news conference in Minneapolis, on Jan. 10, 2026.

Despite Noem’s claim that the agents feared for their lives, O’Hara, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning, said he had seen no evidence Pretti brandished a weapon during the encounter.

“You have a Second Amendment right in the United States to possess a firearm,” O’Hara said during an interview with host Margaret Brennan. “And there are some restrictions around that in Minnesota, and everything that we see that we are aware of shows that he did not violate any of those restrictions.”

But in an interview with BLN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Bovino said a person’s Second Amendment rights “don’t count when you riot and assault, delay, obstruct and impede law enforcement officers.”

Noem seemingly suggested the fact that Pretti possessed “a gun and ammunition, rather than a sign” meant the scene was a “violent riot.”

“We have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers,” she said Saturday of the situation.

Amid conflicting accounts over whether Pretti’s hand at any point during the incident was near his gun, video verified and analyzed by several media outlets, including the New York Times, show the item Pretti appeared to be holding was a phone he was using to film the scene before he attempted to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground by Border Patrol agents. According to a Washington Post analysis of video footage, federal agents appear to have secured Pretti’s gun just moments before an agent shot him.

BCA officers stand on the scene where Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer the previous day in Minneapolis, on Jan. 25, 2026.

“What you see is someone brandishing a cellphone who is simply there with a cellphone helping someone up, a woman up, as his parents point out, when she had slipped,” Klobuchar told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And so when I hear these officials from the Trump administration describe this video in ways that simply aren’t true, I just keep thinking, ‘Your eyes don’t lie.’”

Former President Barack Obama also said the Trump administration’s explanations “appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence.” And Pretti’s family members have accused the White House of spreading “sickening lies.”

Just as in the aftermath of Good’s shooting, federal and state officials disagree about who bears responsibility — and how to manage the fallout.

Blanche on Sunday told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Pretti’s shooting was a “tragedy” but added that “this was entirely avoidable if we had a governor, if we had a mayor, if we had leadership in Washington and over in Minnesota that actually cared about their citizens.”

A person carries an American flag on Nicollet Avenue after federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 24, 2026.

But Gov. Tim Walz and local officials say it’s the Trump administration that has sown chaos. Walz deployed the state’s National Guard to Minneapolis in the aftermath of Pretti’s killing, which he called “sickening.”

“I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening,” Walz posted on X. “The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”

“This administration and everyone involved in this operation should be reflecting. They should be reflecting right now and asking themselves, what exactly are you accomplishing?” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said at a Saturday press conference. “If the goal was to achieve peace and safety, this is doing exactly the opposite. If the goal was to achieve calm and prosperity, this is doing exactly the opposite.”

Continue Reading

Politics

Lawmakers reached a surprise bipartisan health deal. Now they have to keep it.

Published

on

Lawmakers reached a surprise bipartisan health deal. Now they have to keep it.

The package, which would reform the way the intermediaries between drugmakers and insurers and employers operate, faces a tough test this week…
Read More

Continue Reading

Politics

Shutdown risk grows as Democrats revolt after Minneapolis shooting

Published

on

Shutdown risk grows as Democrats revolt after Minneapolis shooting

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes” to fund immigration enforcement, part of a six-bill package set for action next week…
Read More

Continue Reading

Trending