On Sunday evening, 60 Minutes was set to air a segment on the alleged Venezuelan gang members detained by the Trump administration, flown to El Salvador and then imprisoned at CECOT, a notorious torture facility. Within three hours of airing, however, the segment was pulled by Bari Weiss, the recently appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News. Weiss’s decision immediately caused controversy.
Her stated reasons for spiking the segment exhibit a fundamental misunderstanding of the government’s legal case against the alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members. Indeed, as fairly recent guests on the show, we would be shocked if the multiple layers of 60 Minutes fact checkers and legal reviewers would get anything wrong. But Weiss did.
We now know the opening lines of the 60 Minutes segment. “The White House claimed the men were terrorists, part of a violent gang, and invoked a centuries-old wartime power saying it allowed them to deport some men immediately, without due process.” That’s correct.
In an email to staff on Sunday explaining her rationale, Weiss claimed that they “need to do a better job of explaining the legal rationale by which the administration detained and deported these 252 Venezuelans to CECOT.”
Weiss continued:
It’s not as simple as Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act and being able to deport them immediately. And that isn’t the administration’s argument. The admin has argued that in court that detainees are due “judicial review” – and we should explain this, with a voice arguing that Trump is exceeding his authority under the relevant statute, and another arguing that he’s operating within the bounds of his authority. There’s a genuine dispute here.…
There are several problems with Weiss’s take. Putting our point more strongly, if 60 Minutes had “explained this” as Weiss described they should, the segment would have included false or highly misleading information.
(1) “The admin has argued that in court that detainees are due ‘judicial review’ – and we should explain this”
Contrary to Weiss’s stated understanding, the administration has argued that the men detained and sent to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) are not due “judicial review.” And indeed they were not provided with judicial review.
On Mar. 14, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued “Guidance for Implementing the Alien Enemies Act.” A subsection is captioned: “No entitlement to hearings, appeals, or judicial review of removal order.” It states unequivocally that “[a]n alien determined to be an Alien Enemy and ordered removed under the Proclamation and 50 U.S.C. § 21 is not entitled to … judicial review of the removal order in any court of the United States” (emphasis added)
That is, Bondi stated that those detained and removed from the United States under the AEA are “not entitled” to judicial review – the opposite of what Weiss claimed in her email. Notably, Bondi’s memorandum coincided with President Donald Trump’s invocation of the AEA; her interpretation was the administration’s first attempt to explain its position regarding “judicial review.”
What’s more, the DOJ directly told at least some of the men that they were not entitled to judicial review. The written notice that they were being summarily removed under the AEA stated: “You are not entitled to a hearing, appeal, or judicial review of this notice and warrant of apprehension and removal” (emphasis added).
Indeed, the men sent to the CECOT torture prison clearly were not provided with judicial review, so it does not matter what the administration argued in a court of law. Nor were the men provided any form of due process, even though they had the right to seek habeas relief. That is the true crux of the matter.
The administration took even more extreme positions before the courts. In April, a unanimous Supreme Court held that individuals removed under the AEA are constitutionally entitled to seek habeas (more on the decision below). The Justice Department later conceded that the administration “is” required (note the present tense) to provide detainees with notice and opportunity to seek habeas relief (p. 34). However, the DOJ also took the audacious view in court that the Supreme Court’s ruling applied only prospectively – not to the men who had been removed to CECOT, the same people at the center of the 60 Minutes segment. Judge Boasberg described that DOJ argument as “roundly rejected.” He wrote: “If the Due Process Clause now entitles a party to certain procedures, it always has” (emphasis in original).
It should be clear to any close observer of the facts and the litigation that Weiss’s depiction of the Government’s position was deeply flawed.
(2) “we should explain this, with a voice arguing that Trump is exceeding his authority under the relevant statute, and another arguing that he’s operating within the bounds of his authority”
Whether Trump exceeded his authority under the relevant statute is largely, if not completely, irrelevant. A version of the canceled segment has been posted online. And the point Weiss raises is a second-order question not at issue in the 60 Minutes segment (e.g., whether there is an “invasion” or “war” for purposes of the AEA, and whether the president has therefore exceeded his authority under the statute). The first-order question – whether the men were summarily deported in violation of their due process rights under the U.S. Constitution – is stated at the outset of the segment.
(3) “There’s a genuine debate here.”
No, there’s not.
On Monday, Chief Judge Boasberg ruled that the “purpose” of the Trump administration’s “hasty removal” of the men deported to El Salvador was “evident” – that is, it “was certainly intended to deprive them of an opportunity to secure prior judicial review.” Boasberg’s finding contradicts Weiss’s blanket statement that the administration has argued in court that the detainees were due judicial review. Even if the administration had made that argument, the administration did not provide the detainees with such an opportunity – and that is what matters.
if 60 Minutes had “explained this” as Weiss described they should, the segment would have included false or highly misleading information.
But Weiss is wrong about the government position in litigation as well. As Boasberg notes, the administration “conceded [that] Plaintiffs had no opportunity to contest their designation as TdA members prior to removal” (emphasis added).
Almost as if he were in conversation with Weiss’s misstatements the day before, Boasberg added:
At various points in this litigation, the Government itself has not even contested that the detainees who now make up the CECOT class received inadequate process prior to their removal. See generally July 24 Hr’g Tr. (Government not contesting Court’s finding on merits of due-process violation); Gov. Opp. PI (same); May 7 Hr’g Tr. at 29:24–31:21. There can be no genuine dispute about this question now. (emphasis added)
Indeed, Boasberg wrote on the foundation of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in April that “‘[i]t is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law’ in the context of removal proceedings.” The Justices added that “AEA detainees must receive notice … that they are subject to removal under the Act” and “must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs.” The following month, the Supreme Court ruled again that “notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster.” The men removed to CECOT did not receive even that amount of process.
As immigration law expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote on social media, “Weiss is making up a ‘debate’ that has already been settled.”
We return to the opening lines of the canceled 60 Minutes segment, in which the narrator states a simple truth – namely, that the administration sent more than 200 men to CECOT “without due process.” There is no material dispute over this fact. Indeed, Weiss does not even dispute that. What she does affirmatively claim, however, is not grounded in the realities of the Government’s actual legal arguments or the facts of the cases.
FEATURED IMAGE: 12/21/25 Editor’s Note: The broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report “Inside CECOT” will air in a future broadcast.
Great Job Ryan Goodman & the Team @ Just Security Source link for sharing this story.
