A federal judge on Monday denied the Trump administration’s request to call off a court hearing involving President Donald Trump’s use of a wartime law to deport hundreds of Venezuelan nationals, and whether the White House knowingly violated the court order – an extraordinary effort that came just moments before administration officials were due to testify under oath.
The Justice Department’s filing came shortly after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered lawyers to court Monday for a “fact-finding hearing” involving Trump’s use of the 1798 wartime-era Alien Enemies Act, and whether the Trump administration knowingly violated his earlier court order blocking the Trump administration from invoking the law to immediately deport Venezuelan nationals and alleged members of violent gang Tren de Aragua, for 14 days.
The law has only been used three times in U.S. history, most recently during World War II.
During Monday’s hearing, which lasted about 45 minutes, Judge 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—were not brought back to the U.S.
“My orders don’t seem to carry much weight,” Jude 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.
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During the hearing, the Trump administration repeatedly declined to provide information to Judge 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.
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Judge Boasberg also ordered the Trump administration 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.
But 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.
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