The US government has sparked outrage after putting hundreds of Venezuelans on planes and deporting them to El Salvador — where they were sent straight to a mega-prison.
A judge ordered the planes to turn back, telling government lawyers to stop the deportations “however that’s accomplished — whether turning around the plane or not.”
But the planes didn’t turn back. Instead, they landed as planned.
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, couldn’t resist a dig, posting on X: “Oopsie… too late.”
Legal Fallout
Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is now trying to remove District Court Judge James Boasberg from the case. They’ve accused him of overstepping his authority while overseeing the challenge to the deportations.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s government has branded the deportations as “kidnappings” and plans to take the matter to the United Nations as “crimes against humanity.”
Jorge Rodriguez, President Nicolás Maduro’s chief negotiator with the US, said:
“They are not detaining them, they are kidnapping them and expelling them.”
White House’s Musical Blunder
As if the situation wasn’t messy enough, the White House made things worse with a tone-deaf social media post.
They shared a video of a man, wrists shackled to his waist, being patted down at an airport. The video was captioned with lyrics from Semisonic’s hit ‘Closing Time’:
“You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
Semisonic Fires Back
Semisonic weren’t amused. The band hit back on X, saying:
“We did not authorise or condone the White House’s use of our song in any way. And no, they didn’t ask. The song is about joy and possibilities and hope — and they’ve missed the point entirely.”
Semisonic now joins a long list of artists who’ve objected to Trump using their music without permission, including ABBA, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Neil Young, R.E.M., Guns N’ Roses, Woodkid, and Beyoncé.
Even Sinéad O’Connor’s estate issued Trump a cease-and-desist order, while Isaac Hayes’ estate sued him for 134 counts of copyright infringement.
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