US President Donald Trump arrives on April 15, 2025 at the US Navy Midshipman Football Team at the US Navy Academy in the White House in Washington, DC, for a presentation of the Commander-in-Chief Trophy.
Evelyn Hockstein |Reuters
A federal judge ruled that Venezuelan gang members could hold the Trump administration on criminal cont for banning deportation from the country to the infamous El Salvador prison and ignoring his orders.
“The court ultimately found that the government’s actions that day were intentionally ignoring the order and was sufficient to conclude that there was a possible cause for the court to find the government in criminal contense,” wrote Judge James Boasberg. Court opinion Wednesday.
“The court does not reach such conclusions lightly or in a hurry. In fact, the defendants have given them sufficient opportunity to correct or explain their actions,” writes Boasberg. “None of their reactions are satisfactory.”
Boasberg submitted a declaration explaining a plan to “purge” light empty spots in one week.
It means “voluntarily obeying court orders” by giving deported people the opportunity to challenge their removal through appropriate legal proceedings, he writes.
But if the government decides not to take that step, Boasberg said, despite the judge’s orders, they must submit a declaration identifying those who “decided not to halt the relocation” of Venezuelans on March 15th and 16th.
If the declaration is “unsatisfied,” the judge stated that he declared witness testimony or deposition carried out by the plaintiff’s lawyer. He then asks the Department of Justice to indict light empty. If the DOJ refuses to do so, or says he cannot, Boasberg will appoint another attorney to take over the prosecution.
The White House is planning to seek “immediate appeal relief,” communications director Stephen Chang wrote to X after court opinions.
“The president is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and illegal criminal immigrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities across the country,” writes Cheung.
Lee Gererund, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and the plaintiff’s chief attorney, said in a statement to NBC News that Boasberg “focuses on the return of individuals sent to the infamous Salvador prison without a legitimate process, and that remains our concern.”
Boasberg’s opinion is the latest legal development stemming from the Trump administration’s efforts to undertake a massive deportation of undocumented immigrants.
Last month, Trump called the Wartime Law from 1798. Alien enemies do it Deports a group of Venezuelans, who are said to be members of Gang Tren de Aragua.
Five denied gang members have quickly filed a lawsuit attempting to stop the removal from the US
At the hearing soon, Boasberg learned that the flight carrying the Venezuelans could have already taken off, but government lawyers had not shared details at the time. The judge then issued a temporary restraining order, blocking rescue and informing the government that it must comply with it.
“Despite the written orders of the court and the oral command that spells out what is needed for compliance, the government did not halt the ongoing removal process,” Boasberg said in a filing Wednesday.
The Trump administration appealed the order to the US Supreme Court. in 5-4 verdict early this monththe High Court has partially sidked with part of the Trump administration. It allowed officials to use alien enemy laws for deportation, but demanded that Venezuelans have the opportunity to bring their cases to court.
Boasberg wrote that the decision “effectively banned the Constitution completely from continuing to run to drive away them before invoking their due process rights when the government secretly loaded people onto planes on Saturday, keeping many of them in the dark at their destinations.”
