Constitutional Crisis? Trump Sends Venezuelan Gangsters to Superjail!

Donald Trump is deporting hundreds of Venezuelan gang members to a mega prison in El Salvador! The courts say “no,” but Trump isn’t flinching. Are we on the brink of a constitutional crisis?! Welcome to America Uncovered, I’m Chris Chappell. Since Trump assumed office, we’ve seen a flurry of executive actions coming from the president’s desk. And yet, time and time again, Trump’s agenda has been thwarted. Despite controlling both the executive and legislative branches, the unstoppable force of MAGA has run straight into a great immovable object: America’s judicial branch . It’s like there’s check and balances! District judges have issued nationwide injunctions, delays, and restraining orders against the Trump admin, regarding… Ending birthright citizenship Government funding freezes Federal employee buyouts Child sex changes DEI… And much, much more! As a result, Republicans are furious.There have even been calls for these judges to be impeached, particularly over the foreign aid ruling. And I’m sure that’s a precedent that won’t come back to bite them when a Democrat becomes president. But for now, removing federal judges seems like a long shot. The most obvious move has been for the administration to appeal the decisions. However, there are two big challenges with that. First, the legal process takes time. Arguing in front of the Supreme Court can take weeks, even months! That’s political capital burned as the clock slowly ticks down to the next midterm, the next election. That’s time Republicans can’t afford to waste. Second, and even worse for Trump, there are doubts he can even win these cases. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who Trump himself nominated to the Supreme Court, chose to side with the liberal justices, rejecting Trump’s bid to freeze nearly two billion dollars in foreign aid. Ugh, it’s like there’s checks and balances. So is that it? Two months in, have the wheels finally come off of MAGA? Is Trump already a lame duck president? Well, Trump has come up with a revolutionary idea to get around the courts—ignore them. Wait, can he do that? I think we’ll be asking ourselves that a lot over the next four years. This is exactly what happened in a recent case involving the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. You probably first heard of TdA when they were reported as having taken over an apartment complex in Colorado. Well, last month, the Trump administration designated TdA and many other Latin American cartels as terrorist organizations. And TdA was cited as having deep links to the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro. Maduro, along with several high-ranking Venezuelan officials, have been charged with narco-terrorism and other crimes, partnering with the Colombian communist paramilitary, FARC, to flood the US with drugs. And now they’re accused of working with TdA. By this metric, TdA’s activities in the United States aren’t just criminal but an act of state-sponsored terrorism constituting an invasion. To help remove the gangsters, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Yeah, baby! Forget acid wash jeans and bucket hats, we’re bringing back the 18th Century! Like powdered wigs! And snuff! the Alien Enemies Act gives the president broad authority to arrest and ultimately remove citizens of any hostile foreign government. The ACLU argues that Trump is misusing the act since America and Venezuela haven’t formally declared war on each other. However, the statute doesn’t require there to be an actual war but merely a “predatory incursion” as defined—by the president. In any case, around 238 Tren de Aragua members were loaded onto planes and flown to El Salvador where they were received at the Terrorist Confinement Center, or CECOT. Built in 2022 under president Nayib Bukele, it is an utterly massive facility capable of housing 40,000 inmates. But wait, wait - this deserves its own little tangent. We’re talking about Venezuelan gangs operating in the US. Why ship them off to El Salvador? What do they have to do with anything? Well, we can chalk this one up to a little Art of the Deal . El Salvador has offered to hold America’s prisoners for around $25,000 per head. While that may sound expensive on its face, it’s much cheaper than housing them in an American prison– by as much as 43% according to estimates. Additionally, to help offset costs and eventually turn a profit, prisoners are employed in workshops making manufactured goods, Which is to say they’re being used as forced labor. Daaamn, Donald! Remind me not to get on your bad side. Maybe this is why we haven’t heard from the Mooch in so long. He must be working on a chain gang in Belize right about now. So what do the courts back in the US think of all this? As you could probably guess, they’re not happy. A district judge blocked Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act and ordered the planes to turn around mid-flight. That… did not happen. Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller argued that, for one, the court doesn’t have the authority to micromanage the president in matters of national security. After all, who’s in charge of national defense: a district judge or the Commander-in-Chief? But second, he said that by the time the judge made his decision, the planes were already over international waters! Ah, yes… the Money Plane school of legal theory. But in all seriousness, this could be laying the ground for a legit constitutional crisis. Put simply, Trump feels the courts are being weaponized, and that politically motivated judges are using lawfare to bog down his administration regardless of a case’s merit, and so he should just ignore their rulings! And that seems to be what happened with these deportations. Technically speaking, the judicial branch doesn’t really have a way to stop the president from acting outside the law. The Supreme Court doesn’t command any troops. The US Marshals help the courts serve warrants, but their chain of command runs up through the Attorney General. And I don’t really see a scenario where Pam Bondi tries arresting Donald Trump. It’s like that old quote often attributed to Andrew Jackson: “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.” In Jackson’s case , the Supreme Court under Justice Marshall ruled against the state of Georgia encroaching on land owned by the Cherokee . President Jackson refused to intervene on the court’s behalf, and over time the Cherokee were slowly pushed out of the state. Eventually this would lead to the Trail of Tears . For his part in defying the Supreme Court, Jackson faced no actual repercussions. He was right! There was nothing the courts could do. And since the majority of congress was behind Jackson’s policies of Indian Removal, they weren’t going to jump in. So it looks like we’re witnessing a repeat of that case. And more importantly, if this keeps happening, it could erode the power of the courts and neuter the judicial branch. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, the Supreme Court heard the case Trump v. Hawaii . This was about one of Trump’s travel bans. A district judge blocked it, and the state of Hawaii sued the administration. In the end, the Supreme Court sided with Trump, but Justice Clarence Thomas issued a dire warning. He said… “I am skeptical that district courts have the authority to enter universal injunctions.” “These injunctions are beginning to take a toll on the federal court system—preventing legal questions from percolating through the federal courts, encouraging forum shopping, and making every case a national emergency for the courts and for the Executive Branch.” “If their popularity continues, this Court must address their legality.” What he’s saying is that district judges have gone too far. By issuing these injunctions that are too broad, too often, they are hurting the legitimacy of the courts themselves. If the judiciary can’t be an impartial interpreter of the law, then the other branches will see it as an enemy to be defeated. And if there’s going to be a war between the different branches of government, the one with all the guns is probably gonna win. But what do you think? Will the courts reign themselves in? Will Trump fold under pressure? Or are we headed straight for a crisis? Let me know in the comments below - I do actually read and respond to as many as I can. And if you want to support the show, head over to Patreon.com/AmericaUncovered. Just click on this orange button. Any amount you can give is a huge help to me and my staff. Once again, I'm Chris Chappell. Thank you for watching America Uncovered.