Connecticut represenative on Venezuelan deportations and the future of the Democratic Party

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Representative Jim Himes (D-Conn.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the deportation of Venezuelan citizens to El Salvador.

On March 15, the U.S. government deported 238 male Venezuelan citizens on three flights to El Salvador, accusing them of being part of a transnational gang known as Tren de Aragua, which President Trump has labeled a foreign terrorist group and wartime enemy.

Upon landing, the deported men were forcefully led off planes by heavily armed Salvadoran authorities. They were marched into armored vehicles, had their heads shaved and were transferred into cells inside El Salvador's notorious maximum security prison, known as CECOT.

The high-profile deportations quickly set off a legal battle in the U.S. The court fight initially centered on the legality of Mr. Trump's move to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel many of the Venezuelan deportees. It has since expanded into a showdown over whether the Trump administration knowingly defied a federal judge's order to halt deportations under the wartime law and turn the flights around.

U.S. officials have said 137 of the Venezuelan men were treated as "enemy aliens" and removed from the country under the 18th century law. The other 101 were deported under regular immigration procedures, the officials have said.

During her interview with Rep. Himes, Brennan said he and his fellow Democrats used the term "constitutional crisis" in regards to the use Alien Enemies Act and the Tren de Aragua, prompting her to ask Himes to explain, and he answered saying:

"Constitutional crisis is a sort of broadly used term. Lots of people have different definitions for it. It's a lot of stuff you don't like...I'll tell you what I know is a constitutional crisis, if the President of the United States decides to ignore the orders of a court. We have not seen that since Andrew Jackson did that in 1834. When that happens, you have a supine on its back, Congress of the United States, completely beholden to the president, not acting as a check. And if the President says, I don't care what the courts say which, by the way, he has not said, but which, Tom Homan, his czar for deportations, has said, now you have a full-blown constitutional crisis. So, I think these next couple of days, as we see how this administration goes after the many judges and the many courts...many of these judges appointed by Republican presidents, who are stopping the wild and illegal actions of this administration, we're going to see whether we are in a true, you know, Jacksonian constitutional crisis."

Himes followed up by adding, "What people worry about is that this administration acts with a unbelievable kind of cocktail of incompetence and illegality."

During the interview, Brennan and Himes talked about who is the face of the Democratic Party going forward.

Last week, Himes participated in a town hall, where he was asked who will lead the party, with Himes, according to Brennan, throwing out "some of the sort of...known governors out there," but added, "While the party is not leaderless, Hakeem Jeffries is young and untested, and leader [Chuck] Schumer is not a 'wartime president.'"

This prompted Brennan to ask Himes if he thinks the party "can afford to stay the course with the existing leadership they have," to which Himes said:

"I think we can do a lot better job with the leadership that we had. What I was acknowledging in that town hall meeting, and I will tell you, I've seen a lot of town hall meetings. I saw Chuck Grassley's town hall meeting. I saw my colleagues from Wyoming's...ruby red Wyoming's time in the barrel, and people are outraged. They're outraged mainly, by the way, because they're coming to understand what Medicaid cuts are going to look like for them, what it means to obliterate programs that so much of the country...70 million people in the case of Medicaid rely on. So, there's an immense amount of anger. What I do know is that it was not a good look for the two congressional Democratic leaders to be on opposite sides of the continuing resolution. That created a great deal of agita out there, and legitimately so. So, I am quite certain that Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer have learned from this experience and are going to, at a minimum, be unified going forward here."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Himes, click here.