A federal judge set a noon Tuesday deadline for the Trump administration to submit detailed information about the deportation flight, or flights, it conducted over the weekend that sent Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador, amid questions over whether the administration knowingly defied an earlier court order to halt any planned removals of Venezuelan migrants for a period of 14 days.
During a fact-finding hearing Monday evening, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to submit more information on the flight, which transported hundreds of migrants to El Salvador, including Venezuelan nationals targeted for removal under the 1798 wartime-era Alien Enemies Act. Judge Boasberg had granted an emergency order to temporarily block the flights from taking place for 14 days while the court considered the legality of using wartime immigration law to immediately deport Venezuelan nationals and alleged members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua.
During Monday’s hearing, which lasted about 45 minutes, Judge Boasberg asked the government lawyers to submit information on how planes departed the U.S. on Saturday that were carrying any people who were deported “solely on the basis” of that proclamation, how many individuals were on each plane, where the planes landed and what time each plane took off from the U.S., and from where.
He also ordered both parties to appear in court Friday to consider a motion filed by the Trump administration to vacate the case.
Plaintiffs noted in their emergency lawsuit that the immigration law in question has been invoked just three times since its passage in 1798, most recently during World War II.
Boasberg at times appeared frustrated as he pressed government lawyers for more details as to why his Saturday order – which called for the administration to immediately return all planes with expelled migrants, including the Venezuelan nationals and alleged Tren de Aragua gang members – was not enforced.
“My orders don’t seem to carry much weight,” Judge Boasberg said near the end of the hearing. Both parties are due back in court Friday for a hearing over the Trump administration’s request to vacate the case. During the hearing, the Trump administration repeatedly declined to provide information to Boasberg about how many flights carrying migrants took off on Saturday, citing national security protections.
“Those are operational issues, and I am not at liberty to provide information,” a lawyer for the Trump administration told the court.
Judge Boasberg, in response, ordered the Justice Department to provide the court with more information in writing by Tuesday at noon.
In granting the emergency order Saturday, Boasberg sided with the plaintiffs – Democracy Forward and the ACLU – who had argued that the deportations would likely pose imminent and “irreparable” harm to the migrants under the time proposed.
Judge Boasberg also ordered the Trump administration on Saturday to immediately halt any planned deportations, and to notify their clients that “any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” he said.
However, the decision apparently came too late to stop a plane filled with more than 200 migrants who were deported to El Salvador.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News in an interview that a plane carrying hundreds of migrants, including more than 130 persons removed under the Alien Enemies Act, had already “left U.S. airspace” by the time the order was handed down.
She also suggested the order itself was not “lawful” and noted the Trump administration’s intent to appeal.
In response, the ACLU asked the court to order the government to submit declarations, under oath, that the planes had indeed taken off after the court’s order.
“Whether or not the planes had cleared U.S. territory, the U.S. retained custody at least until the planes landed and the individuals were turned over to foreign governments,” the ACLU said in their filing.
Judge Boasberg, an Obama appointee, at times appeared slightly incredulous that the Trump administration chose to move forward with the deportation of hundreds of migrants to El Salvador, pressing lawyers for the Justice Department over whether they believed there were better options than to comply with the decision he handed down Saturday.
“Isn’t then the better course, to return the planes to the United States and figure out what to do, than to say, ‘We don’t care, we’ll do what we want?'” he asked.
