Another view ...
... On Saturday, the US government put hundreds of Venezuelans on planes which swiftly took off for the accused gang members' ultimate destination: an El Salvadorean mega-prison.
A judge then ordered the planes back, telling the government's lawyers verbally that they should do so "however that's accomplished " whether turning around the plane or not."
But the court order was never heeded, the planes stayed the course.
"Oopsie ... too late," El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, posted on X after the deportees landed in his country. He included an emoji crying with laughter. The post was reshared by the White House's director of communications, Steven Cheung.
Little information has been provided about the identities of those detained, but a large number were Venezuelan and the Trump administration alleges the deportees -- apparently rounded up at the weekend -- are all members of Tren de Aragua, a notorious transnational criminal gang.
Attorneys for some of the deportees refute that claim and human rights groups have raised concerns about the lack of due process.
This incident has ignited fears that the White House is willing to openly defy a federal court order, setting it on a potential collision course with America's judicial branch.
In America's system of government checks and balances, federal courts in the judicial branch have the responsibility of reviewing actions by the president and the government agencies in the executive branch tasked with enacting laws passed by Congress. An order issued by a judge is binding - and noncompliance can result in civil and criminal sanctions.
It very rarely gets that far, however, as involved parties traditionally defer to a judge's ruling. ...
