“We are not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think,” Tom Homan said.
The White House on Monday was facing a legal battle over its use of the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law, under which the United States began deporting Venezuelans allegedly linked to organized crime.
President Donald Trump also said he planned on Tuesday to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the U.S. president seeks to find common ground for a potential ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.
3 hours and 3 minutes ago
UFC superstar Conor McGregor is at the White House to meet with President Donald Trump on St. Patrick’s Day.
Irish professional mixed martial artist and businessman Conor McGregor speaks from the White House briefing room podium with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in Washington, Mar. 17, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
McGregor appeared in the briefing room with press secretary Karoline Leavitt and took some questions from reporters.
“Ireland is at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness,” he said as he railed against the Irish government’s handling of immigration and other issues.
Irish professional mixed martial artist and businessman Conor McGregor speaks from the White House briefing room podium with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in Washington, Mar. 17, 2025.
Trump expressed his admiration for McGregor when he met with Ireland’s Taoiseach Michael Martin last week. When asked who his favorite Irish person was, Trump responded: “I do happen to like your fighter … Conor’s great.”
McGregor is a controversial figure who’s faced several misconduct allegations throughout his career. Last fall, a civil jury in Ireland found him liable of sexual assault. McGregor had denied the accusations.
White House border czar Tom Homan defended the administration’s decision not to comply with a federal judge’s order to turn around deportation flights in the air during an appearance on Fox News on Monday morning.
“It wasn’t until this flight was already [in] international waters heading down to El Salvador that the judge made some comment about returning the flights. We are already in international waters. We are outside the borders of the United States. I’m the border czar. Once you are outside the border, you know, it is what it is,” Homan said.
White House Border Czar Tom Homan speaks to reporters outside of the White House on March 07, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Homan said that there would be “another flight every day” when asked about what’s next for immigration efforts.
“We are going to make this country safe again. I wake up every morning loving my job because I work for the greatest president in the history of my life. And we are going to make this country safe again. I’m proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the Left thinks. We’re coming,” Homan said.
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart
President Donald Trump said his lawyers would have to answer questions about his administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, but added that the U.S. was in a “time of war.”
When asked aboard Air Force One on Sunday whether the administration deliberately violated a federal judge’s order barring deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, Trump said he didn’t know if the order was violated: “You have to speak to the lawyers.”
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return to Washington, D.C., U.S., March 16, 2025.
Trump added that he felt he was using the Alien Enemies Act appropriately despite the fact it has never been invoked in peacetime, saying, “this is a time of war,” and citing the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
-ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr
Mar 16, 2025, 5:25 PM EDT
The Trump administration has asked the D.C. Circuit Court for a stay of District Judge James Boasberg’s ruling that temporarily blocked the government from deporting Venezuelans using the Alien Enemies Act.
The White House contends that Boasberg lacked jurisdiction to enter the temporary restraining order, which the administration describes in a filing to the appellate court as “unprecedented.”
“This Court should halt this massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove people that Defendants had determined to be members of [Tren de Aragua], a group the President and the Secretary of State have found to be a threat to national security. This Court should halt this unprecedented intrusion upon the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens who pose grave threats to the American people,” wrote a DOJ attorney in an emergency motion for a stay.
Alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua who were deported by the U.S. government, are detained at the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador in a photo obtained Mar. 16, 2025.
Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia via Reuters
The government argues that Trump’s actions in invoking the AEA “are not subject to judicial review” and that there was “no lawful basis” for the court to enjoin the implementation of the president’s proclamation.
“If this TRO is allowed to stand,” the DOJ writes, “district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action upon bare receipt of a complaint.”
The D.C. Circuit ordered a response to the emergency motion to stay be filed by Tuesday at 5 p.m. by the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the underlying case.
-ABC News’ James Hill
