Will the courts be able to control Trump’s deportation chaos?

Subscribe here. Subscribe here.

Alarm bells rang on Monday after President Donald Trump could be heard on a video feed telling El Salvador President Nayib Bukele–with whom the White House struck a $6 million deal to detain deported migrants in a detention center denounced by human rights groups–that “homegrowns are next” and that Bukele needed to “build about five more” detention centers, NPR reported.

Legal experts have already raised concerns over due process violations in several high-profile immigration cases, including that of Columbia University graduate student and campus protest organizer Mahmoud Khalil and the mistakenly-deported Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with some calling it a constitutional crisis. According to NBC News experts agree that Trump’s apparent plan to detain American citizens in a foreign facility is unconstitutional and illegal. And if Trump is able to get away with keeping Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, some scholars suggest he could deny anyone their due process rights, which are guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.

But there seems to be a (slow) mounting opposition to Trump’s attempts to consolidate power. The courts grow closer to a direct standoff against President Donald Trump, as two judges separately consider contempt charges against the Trump administration after they alleged it violated court orders against its severe immigration practices.

And after the Trump administration sent Harvard University a list of demands that would allow the federal government to have oversight on the university’s hiring and admissions processes, force the school to audit students, faculty, and staff for “viewpoint diversity,” and require Harvard to discontinue any DEI-based policies in order to maintain its federal funding, Harvard rejected the demands, the Harvard Crimson reported.

The Crimson reported that Harvard’s attorneys sent a letter to administration officials saying, “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle.”

And now for the rest of the iceberg.

Anti-democratic actions

After Harvard rejected Trump’s demands, the White House froze more than $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts to the university.

• POLITICO reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is threatening Harvard’s ability to accept and enroll international students.
• The Department of Justice directed immigration judges to expedite asylum denials without hearings for migrants who “do not have viable legal paths for relief or protection from removal.” According to the New York Times, the new guidance would skirt the usual, sometimes years-long, hearing process.
• Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told state nonprofit leaders that “we are all afraid … I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right,” the Anchorage Daily News reported.
• DOGE

“Special government employee” and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)–which is not an official government agency–is working on $5 million “gold cards” that would work as immigration visas, the New York Times reported.

• After Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained to Trump that the interim head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was pushed through by DOGE, even though the position reports to Bessent’s office, the acting IRS commissioner was removed, the New York Times reported.
• Immigration

During a meeting with Trump, El Salvador President Bukele said he would not return Abrego Garcia, who the White House admitted was mistakenly deported due to an “administrative error,” to the United States, POLITICO reported. The White House has doubled down on the position that it cannot make El Salvador return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., despite a Supreme Court order requiring the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return to Maryland.

• Several administration officials, including domestic policy adviser Stephen Miller, Vice President JD Vance, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, have doubled down on unsubstantiated claims that Abrego Garcia is a “gang member” who has committed crimes and that he actually should have been deported, despite the White House’s acknowledgement that his deportation was a mistake.
• A federal appeals court rejected Trump’s attempt to circumvent a judicial order for the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.
• The U.S. district judge overseeing Abrego Garcia’s case has indicated she is considering contempt proceedings against the White House, NBC News reported.
• After at least two failed attempts, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with Abrego Garcia at an El Salvador hotel, the New York Times reported.
• Van Hollen said that Abrego Garcia told him he had been moved from the notorious CECOT prison to a detention center with better conditions, the New York Times reported.
• In an interview with Fox News, Trump doubled down on his desire to detain “homegrown” criminals in an El Salvador detention center.
• A federal judge who ordered the White House to halt deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador–and whose order was not followed by the administration–threatened to open a contempt investigation, according to the New York Times.
• At least two American citizens, a Massachusetts immigration attorney and a Connecticut physician, have reported receiving orders to leave the country by the Department of Homeland Security.
• NBC News reported that Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University student who was detained on the street in a now-viral video in apparent connection with a pro-Palestine op-ed she wrote for the student newspaper, wrote in a declaration that she is enduring “inhumane” conditions, not receiving proper medical care for her asthma, and had her hijab removed by a nurse.
• Ozturk was denied bond by a Louisiana federal immigration judge, according to Boston.com.
• Columbia University student and pro-Palestine protester Mohsen Mahdawi, who has legal permanent resident status, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers when he showed up for his citizenship interview this week, the Intercept reported.
• ICE detained a U.S. citizen who was born in Georgia for more than 24 hours, even as a Florida judge confirmed the validity of his birth certificate, according to the Florida Phoenix. He was released today.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio shut down the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub, which was responsible for tracking and combating foreign disinformation–including from the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian governments, the New York Times reported.
• The administration has allegedly failed to comply with a court order requiring the White House to fund unaccompanied minor children’s legal representation, leaving some minors–some of whom do not speak English–to appear in court without lawyers, NBC News reported.
• Health and science

New Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies will soon cut patients off from more affordable weight loss medication, according to the New York Times.

• CBS News reported that the FDA is working on plans to end most of its food safety inspections, according to anonymous federal health officials. An FDA spokesperson told CBS that the claims were false.
• LGBTQ+ rights

The Trump administration is suing Maine over its refusal to comply with executive orders banning transgender girls and women from participating on women’s sports teams.

• DEI and civil rights

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense over its bans on books like To Kill a Mockingbird and others that don’t comply with the administration’s anti-DEI executive orders in schools for children of military families, the New York Times reported.

• Recommended reading

Vox correspondent Zack Beauchamp explained the type of power Trump aspires to–and why his pursuit of it may backfire on him: “He’s operating in a system where law and the political opposition create real, if incomplete, constraints. He could lose support from the public and social elites if he ignores these constraints. Lawyered this week.

• Unwind
• I am THRILLED to share some fun animal news this week! Lawyered this week.

Unwind

I am THRILLED to share some fun animal news this week!

• When San Diego experienced an earthquake on April 14, adult elephants at the San Diego Zoo rushed to form a protective circle around the herd’s younger elephants. The zoo stated on X that this was a normal response to perceived threats and that all elephants involved returned to their routine afterward. The community is important!
• I learned today that Sweden’s national television has been broadcasting a livestream of elk making their annual migration from their winter homes to their summer homes for the past few years. It’s so peaceful. Here’s where you can watch it.

  Story Originally Seen Here