Deportations Proceed Despite Judge's Ruling on Enemies Act

The legal fight between the Trump administration and a federal judge in Washington, D.C., over deportation policies has not stopped deportations.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it deported Orbelin Benitez-Carbajal, 49, to Mexico on Monday. Benitez-Carbajal was convicted of numerous offenses while being in the U.S. illegally, including assault in 2006, manslaughter in 2010, driving while intoxicated in 2023 and illegal entry in 2024, all in Texas.

Another deportation Monday involved Cecilio Lopez Vasquez, 40, who ICE said was wanted in his native Guatemala in connection with a rape case. Lopez Vasquez had been ordered deported from the U.S. by an immigration judge in 2006, but ICE said he illegally reentered the U.S. in 2024. ICE agents arrested him in Missouri in February.

Neither of those cases fell under President Donald Trump's executive order invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act that allowed for the deportation of violent criminal illegal immigrants alleged to be members of the ruthless Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, last weekend issued a temporary restraining order halting deportation flights of illegal immigrants under Trump's proclamation. Boasberg ordered the flights to turn around and return to the U.S., but the administration did not comply.

NBC News reported Friday that a Department of Homeland Security official said illegal immigrants from Venezuela arrested by ICE this week could still be deported to prisons in El Salvador if they an immigration judge orders them to be deported.

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