A federal judge is demanding more information from the Trump administration regarding recent deportation flights that sent hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, despite a court order to halt these actions. The Justice Department submitted a sworn statement on Tuesday detailing how flights carrying suspected members of the Tren de Aragua gang landed in El Salvador, just hours after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued an emergency order to temporarily stop the use of wartime powers for rapid deportations.
Judge Boasberg has now set a new deadline for the Justice Department to provide further details by noon on Wednesday. This legal tussle is intensifying the conflict between the White House and the judiciary, especially after President Trump criticized the judge on social media, suggesting impeachment. In response, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement emphasizing that impeachment is not a suitable response to disagreements over judicial decisions.
During a Monday hearing, Justice Department lawyers were unable to answer the judge's questions about the timing and passengers of the deportation flights. This led Boasberg to request a written declaration from the Justice Department. In response, the department provided a statement from Robert Cerna, a senior official at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Harlingen, Texas, where the flights originated.
The Justice Department maintained that Boasberg had no grounds to request more information about the flights that departed before his written order. According to Cerna, three flights left the U.S. for El Salvador on Saturday, following a proclamation by Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which allows the president to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime. Two flights departed before the judge's order was issued, while a third left afterward, but Cerna stated that all passengers had final removal orders and were not deported solely based on the proclamation.
The Justice Department reiterated that the Trump administration did not breach the court's order because the first two flights had already left U.S. airspace, and the judge's earlier verbal instructions were not enforceable as injunctions. This situation is raising concerns among Trump's critics about the administration's potential defiance of federal court authority, possibly leading to a constitutional crisis.
The Alien Enemies Act has rarely been used in U.S. history, with the last invocation during World War II. The ACLU and Democracy Forward have filed a lawsuit to stop the deportations of five Venezuelan men and expanded their request to cover all individuals affected by Trump's proclamation. The ACLU argues that the act cannot be used during peacetime for immigration enforcement and requires a congressional declaration of war.
Lee Gelernt, the ACLU's lead attorney, questioned the administration's claims that the deported individuals were gang members, noting they did not have a chance to prove otherwise in a hearing. The Trump administration, however, insists that the deported men were carefully vetted and identified as gang members, though many lack criminal records in the U.S. due to their short stay. Cerna's statement suggests that the absence of criminal records does not diminish the perceived threat they pose.