Trump administration live updates: Border czar says ‘I don’t care what judges think’ as Venezuelan deportations may have violated court order

Fox News host Trey Gowdy criticized Republicans on Monday for railing against a federal judge who issued a court order blocking the Trump administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under an 18th-century law, noting that conservatives had previously praised this same judge.

“So you can’t pick and choose what day you like a judge and what day you don’t!” Gowdy declared during a Fox News appearance.

Brown Medicine’s Dr. Rasha Alawieh will remain in Lebanon, for now, while a federal judge hears arguments to determine whether Donald Trump’s administration intentionally defied a court order to halt her deportation.

District Judge Leo Sorokin ordered officials with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to court in Boston Monday to explain why the Ivy League doctor was deported last week, apparently in defiance of his court order.

Rhian Lubin and Alex Woodward report.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted at the White House press briefing today that the Venezuelans deported to El Salvador were designated as foreign terrorists.

“These are designated foreign terrorists. President Trump signed a proclamation on February 20, 2025, designating TDA as a foreign terrorist organization… The President has a right to do that, and I think nobody would argue that Tren de Aragua should be designated a foreign terrorist organization.”

Leavitt also told reporters that the Trump administration paid El Salvador $6 million to accept and detain the roughly 200 people flown there this weekend.

Asked what criteria were being used to determine whether those deported were members of the group, Leavitt said: “Intelligence.”

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave a firm no to a demand from a French politician that the U.S. should return the State of Liberty, which was gifted by France in the late 19th Century.

As a member of the European Parliament and co-president of a small left-wing party in France, Raphaël Glucksmann cannot claim to speak for all of his compatriots.

But his assertion in a speech this weekend that some Americans “have chosen to switch to the side of the tyrants” reflects the broad shockwaves President Trump’s seismic shifts in foreign and domestic policy are triggering in France and elsewhere in Europe.

Asked if President Donald Trump will agree with the request for the return of the iconic landmark, Leavitt replies: “Absolutely not. My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician is that it’s only because of America that the French are not speaking German right now.”

With reporting from the AP

The Trump administration claims that it acted within the confines of the law in using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members.

Speaking at the White House briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “This Administration acted within the confines of the law … and under the authority granted to him under the Alien Enemies Act. We are quite confident in that — and we are wholly confident that we are going to win this case in court.”

A Las Vegas university professor who was killed in a mass shooting at the campus more than a year ago has been named by the Trump administration in a new investigation into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in higher education.