Judge In Deportation Case Ups The Ante In Fight Over Flight Deportations

A federal judge said Thursday that the Trump administration failed to meet a court deadline to disclose details on deportation flights to El Salvador, intensifying President Donald Trump’s ongoing legal conflict with the judiciary.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg stated that the government’s lawyers did not provide the required information regarding the deportation flights—which included individuals slated for immediate removal under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act—and failed to clarify whether they deliberately defied his court order, Fox News reported.

In a scathing order issued Thursday evening, the judge noted that the government “again evaded its obligations” by not submitting the necessary details, even after he permitted them to do so under seal. The filing they eventually submitted was hours late, but he claimed it did not adequately answer his questions, Fox added.

The administration sent the court a six-paragraph declaration from a regional ICE office director in Harlingen, Texas, which informed the judge that Cabinet secretaries are “actively considering whether to invoke the state secrets [act] privileges over the other facts requested by the Court’s order.”

Boasberg declared: “This is woefully insufficient.”

On Saturday, Boasberg issued an emergency restraining order that blocked the Trump administration from using the 1798 law to deport Venezuelan nationals—including alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang—for a period of 14 days. He also ordered any flights already in the air to return to U.S. soil immediately.

However, just hours later, a plane carrying hundreds of U.S. migrants, including Venezuelan nationals targeted under the law, landed in El Salvador.

Boasberg immediately directed the government to submit additional information to the court as part of a “fact-finding hearing” to determine whether the Trump administration knowingly defied his order and to account for the number of individuals deported, Fox noted.

After the government repeatedly failed to comply, citing national security concerns, he instructed them to provide the information under seal by noon Thursday.

Boasberg requested that government lawyers provide detailed information on Saturday’s departures, including how many planes left the U.S. carrying individuals deported “solely on the basis” of that proclamation, the number of passengers on each plane, their landing destinations, and the specific takeoff times and origins.

“To begin, the Government cannot proffer a regional ICE official to attest to Cabinet-level discussions of the state-secrets privilege; indeed, his declaration on that point, not surprisingly, is based solely on his unsubstantiated ‘understand[ing],’” he said.

Related Posts

The Senate Froze as AOC’s ….

“You think this chamber needs another clueless rich kid pretending to be a senator?” AOC snapped, her voice slicing through the room like a blade. The chamber…

This is the silent disease that is triggered when you come into contact with … See more

Herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, is a condition where early treatment is absolutely crucial. Caused by the reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus—the same virus responsible for…

Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek Star and Comedy Legend, Dies at 71

Catherine O’Hara is gone, and the silence she leaves behind is unbearable. Fans, friends, and generations who grew up with her are struggling to process it. From…

After a Terrible Crash Left Me Disabled, My Husband Made Me Pay Him to Take Care of Me – He Cried in the End!

I’m thirty-five, and before the accident, I was the one who kept our marriage running like a well-oiled machine. I paid most of the bills. I cooked….

Nature Has No Mercy

This is nature in its rawest form. No good, no evil — only survival. In the wild, every moment matters, and instinct decides who lives and who…

Tom Homan Makes It Clear That Trump’s Mass Deportation Policy Hasn’t Changed

On Thursday, Border Czar Tom Homan held a press conference to update the nation on recent events in Minneapolis. Homan made it perfectly clear: “We are not…