WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said Thursday that the Trump administration may have "acted in bad faith” by trying to rush Venezuelan migrants out of the country before a court could block their deportations to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg in Washington pressed a Justice Department lawyer to explain the government's actions in a high-stakes court hearing to determine whether the administration ignored his orders to turn around planes that were carrying deportees to El Salvador.
The judge said he could issue a ruling as soon as next week on whether there are grounds to find anyone in contempt of court for defying the court order.
The case has become a flashpoint in a battle between the judiciary and the Trump administration amid mounting White House frustrations over court orders blocking key parts of the president’s sweeping agenda. Trump has called for the judge’s impeachment, while the Justice Department has argued the judge is overstepping his authority.
Boasberg ordered the administration last month not to deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law Trump invoked over what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The judge also ordered that any planes with Venezuelan immigrants that were already in the air be returned to the United States. That did not happen.
Boasberg, who was appointed to the federal bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, said it appeared the administration had tried to get the deportees out of the country as quickly as possible before a court could step in. He told a Justice Department lawyer he suspects the government may have “acted in bad faith throughout that day."
“If you really believed anything you did that day could survive a court challenge, I cannot believe you would have operated the way you did,” Boasberg said.
The Justice Department has said the administration didn't violate the judge's order, arguing it didn't apply to planes that had already left U.S. airspace by the time his command came down. The Justice Department has noted that the judge's written order said nothing about flights that had already left the U.S. and that the judge had no power to compel the president to return the planes anyway.
The Trump administration has refused to answer the judge’s questions about when the planes landed and who was on board, contending they are considered “state secrets.”
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign told the judge that details about the flights could be diplomatically sensitive, since the migrants were being sent to a third country that had agreed with the U.S. to hold them in their prison. Ensign also repeatedly said he didn’t know any “operational details” of those March 15 deportation flights.
“I had no knowledge from my client that was the case,” Ensign replied when asked if he knew during the court hearing that day that planes were already in the air or were about to take off.
The Trump administration is urging the Supreme Court for permission to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act. The Justice Department says federal courts shouldn’t interfere with sensitive diplomatic negotiations. It also claimed that migrants should make their case in a federal court in Texas, where they are being detained.