Trump administration deports hundreds under sweeping wartime authority despite judge’s pause order

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/trump-administration-deportations-alien-enemies-act/index.html

In the latest dramatic showdown between the White House and the judiciary, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s ability to use the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act on Saturday evening, and verbally ordered any planes in the air carrying some of those migrants to turn back to the US.

Leavitt’s assertion that there was no conflict between the administration’s actions and the judge’s “written order” appears carefully crafted to exclude the judge’s directive that planes be turned around — which he issued verbally from the bench.

Verbal orders hold the same legal weight as written directives, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig told CNN’s Jessica Dean on “CNN Newsroom” Sunday. The big question, Honig explained, was where the planes were when the order was given.