Trump’s immigration enforcement order inflamed by the first two flights left of the U.S. airspace after the Proclamation

A federal judge Monday ordered the U.S. Justice Department to make a sworn declaration by Tuesday with details of how planeloads of people were deported despite his order to turn them around.

But in the last several days, Judge Boasberg and his court have been drawn into a battle with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement that threatens, more than anything to date, to pitch the branches of government into a constitutional crisis.

According to his declaration, two of the planes left before the written order was published. All individuals on the plane had final orders of removal, but they were not deported because of the Proclamation, which was the reason why a third flight took off.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on Saturday seeking to block the deportations of five Venezuelan men, and later expanded their request to all people who could be deported under Trump’s proclamation.

Government lawyers said on Sunday that some gang members were already removed from the United States territory when the judge issued his order.

The DOJ lawyers argued at the hearing Monday that the first two flights had already left the U.S. airspace, and that the court’s earlier oral statements did not mean to turn around any planes already in the air.

“Plaintiffs remain extremely concerned that, regardless of which time is used, the government may have violated the Court’s command,” the groups wrote in a filing on Monday. They said that people were kept in custody by the U.S. government until the planes landed and they were turned over to El Salvador.

The case against deportations of alleged gang members to El Salvador: a federal judge is pushing the Trump administration to stop impeachment

As chief judge of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia since 2023, Judge James E. Boasberg has been responsible for setting the tone of the court through some of its highest-profile dealings with President Trump, including overseeing the end of grand jury inquiries in both federal cases against Mr. Trump, the 2020 elections case and the president’s handling of classified documents.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge is pushing the Trump administration for more details about weekend flights that deported hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members, despite his order to turn the planes around.

The incident is adding to concerns among Trump’s critics that the administration is openly defying the authority of federal courts, and moving the nation closer to a constitutional crisis.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” the court said in a statement from Roberts. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

At a hearing on Monday, lawyers for the Justice Department did not answer repeated questions from the judge about when the deportation flights took off, and exactly who was on board the planes.

Justice Department lawyers struck a defiant note and insisted that Boasberg had no reason to seek more information about the deportation flights.

According to Cerna’s statement, there were three deportation flights that left the U.S. on Saturday for El Salvador, a day after Trump signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used authority that gives the president power to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime or invasion.

Only Congress can authorize use of the Alien Enemies Act in times of peace, and only then can it be used for immigration enforcement, says the American Civil Liberties Union.

Congress made it clear that the statute can only be used against a foreign government. It has never in our country’s history been used during peacetime, much less against a gang,” said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney on the case, in an interview with NPR.

In a court filing late Monday night, the Trump administration insisted it had good reason to believe that the men deported to El Salvador over the weekend are gang members.

“Agency personnel carefully sieved alien Aliens to ensure that they were members of Tran de Arugua,” Cerna said in the declaration. “ICE did not simply rely on social media posts, photographs of the alien displaying gang-related hand gestures, or tattoos alone.”

“Many” of the people who are currently in El Salvadoran’s supermax prison do not have criminal records in the US, according to Cerna. They only had a short time in the United States.

“The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat,” according to Cerna’s declaration. The lack of specific information about each individual highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”