Judge demands answers of Trump administration in Venezuela deportation case

A federal judge on Monday gave the Trump administration a Tuesday deadline to provide details about plane loads of Venezuelans it deported after being ordered not to, in a brewing showdown over presidential power.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday issued an order blocking the deportations, which President Donald Trump justified under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, but the flights continued anyway and 261 people were removed from the United States and taken to El Salvador.

Trump claims the deported Venezuelans are members of the prison gang Tren de Aragua, which he designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The White House on Saturday published a Trump proclamation that invoked the Alien Enemies Act to declare that Tren de Aragua was conducting irregular warfare against the U.S.

A Trump administration lawyer argued both that the judge's initial oral ruling to block the flights was superseded by a more sparsely written order issued later, and that the government had the legal right to continue with flights once they had left U.S. airspace.

While Boasberg did not say whether the government violated his order, he questioned the Trump administration's rationale for not returning the planes to the U.S.

He repeatedly pressed the Justice Department attorney, Abhishek Kambli, to provide details on the timing of the flights that transported the Venezuelans to El Salvador, including whether they took off after his order was issued.

"Why are you showing up today without answers?" Boasberg asked.

Since taking office in January, Trump has sought to push the boundaries of executive power, cutting spending authorized by Congress, dismantling agencies and firing thousands of federal workers.

He has challenged the historic checks and balances between the U.S. branches of government in the past, and in this case asked thatJudge Boasberg be removed.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there were 261 people deported in total, including 137 who were removed under the Alien Enemies Act and more than 100 others who were removed via standard immigration proceedings. There were also 23 Salvadoran members of the MS-13 gang, she said.

Relatives of suspected deportees were desperate to know what happened to their loved ones.

The Trump administration has variously described the deported Venezuelans as gang members, "monsters," or "alien terrorists," but has not provided evidence to back up its assertions.

Although Tren de Aragua is a feared criminal organization that trafficks in humans in South America, there has been little documented evidence of large-scale operations in the United States.

National security cited

Kambli, the government lawyer, told the judge the Trump administration was resistant to sharing information because, "There is a lot of operational national security and foreign relations at risk."

The White House has asserted that federal courts have no jurisdiction over Trump's authority to expel foreign enemies under the 18th-century law. In the hearing, the government argued the court's jurisdiction was limited by the statute.

Boasberg pressed Kambli about why the Trump administration did not appeal or address any disputes in court rather than let thedeportation flights continue. "Isn't the better course to return the planes to the United States?" the judge asked.

At another point, Boasberg said it was "a heck of a stretch" for the Trump administration to argue that his oral order issued on Saturday to return the planes was not in effect because he had not repeated as much in the written order.

Several legal experts said the deportations amounted to the Trump administration defying the judge's order.

In the end, Boasberg ordered the government by midday on Tuesday to provide details such as the timing of flight departures and arrivals in foreign countries, the number of people deported, and why the government does not believe it can make that information public.

Monday's session was prompted by an emergency hearing on Saturday in which Boasberg granted a request by the American Civil Liberties Union to issue a two-week temporary block on Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to carry out the deportations.

ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt raised the idea of whether the Trump administration's actions could trigger a constitutional crisis, saying in the hearing, "I think we're getting very close to it."

Gelernt further questioned Trump's assertion that the deported immigrants belonged to Tren de Aragua, saying: "This has been a habit of the Trump administration to overstate the danger of the people they've arrested."

With a Republican-controlled Congress largely backing Trump's agenda, federal judges have often been the only constraint on his executive actions, putting many orders on hold while they consider their legality.