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President Donald Trump speaks before Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is sworn in as HHS Secretary in the Oval Office, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington (Photo/Alex Brandon).
The Trump administration openly defied a federal judge’s order blocking the government from deporting hundreds of alleged gang members under a rarely used 18th century wartime authority, according to newly filed court documents.
Plaintiffs in the case on Monday morning implored Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg to order administration officials to submit “one or more sworn declarations about their conduct” to ascertain whether they willfully violated the court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA).
The administration has denied any wrongdoing, asserting that the planes carrying 137 alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang to Honduras and El Salvador were already out of U.S. airspace when Boasberg issued his order Saturday evening.
The ruling stemmed from a Saturday morning lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of several pseudonymous Venezuelan men seeking to bar President Donald Trump from going through with his stated plan to deport the men using the obscure measure. In quick fashion, Boasberg granted the plaintiffs request, barring the government from invoking the AEA to remove individuals for 14 days and holding a Saturday evening hearing on the matter.
During the hearing, Justice Department attorneys told the court that two planes had already departed carrying individuals to Honduras and El Salvador. Boasberg at about 6:45 p.m. on Saturday issued an oral order that “unambiguously directed the government to turn around any planes carrying individuals being removed pursuant to the AEA Proclamation,” plaintiffs wrote in Monday’s filing.
From the transcript, Boasberg stated:
[T]hat you shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States, but those people need to be returned to the United States. However that’s accomplished, whether turning around a plane or not embarking anyone on the plane or those people covered by this on the plane, I leave to you. But this is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately
Boasberg’s brief written order, which was issued at about 7:25 p.m. Saturday, did not include the same directive ordering the planes to return to the country. Nonetheless, the administration allegedly allowed the planes to land and the individuals were handed over to the custody of other nations.
The DOJ on Sunday said it would abide by the court’s order going forward, but noted that “some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory under the Proclamation before the issuance of this Court’s second order.” Those gang members were allegedly on flights that departed the U.S. during the Saturday evening hearing.
Plaintiffs on Monday noted that the administration’s response appeared to be intentionally ambiguous, writing:
The government states that “some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory under the Proclamation before the issuance of this Court’s second order. (emphasis added). That phrasing strongly suggests that the government has chosen to treat this Court’s Order as applying only to individuals still on U.S. soil or on flights that had yet to clear U.S. airspace as of 7:26pm (the time of the written Order). If that is how the government proceeded, it was a blatant violation of the Court’s Order.
Whether or not the planes had cleared U.S. territory, the U.S. retained custody at least until the planes landed and the individuals were turned over to foreign governments. And the Court could not have been clearer that it was concerned with losing jurisdiction and authority to order the individuals returned if they were handed over to foreign governments, not with whether the planes had cleared U.S. territory or had even landed in another country.
Amid reports that the government ignored Boasberg, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday morning said the administration “did not refuse to comply” with the court.
“The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory. The written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict,” she wrote on X, previously Twitter. “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrying foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally, appeared to troll critics of the administration with his own social media post. The post included a New York Post article about Boasberg blocking Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act and was captioned, “Oopsie … too late” along with a tears-of-joy emoji.
Boasberg on Monday morning ordered the parties to appear for a 4 p.m. hearing that afternoon, directing the Trump administration to “be prepared to provide answers to the questions raised by Plaintiffs” in their latest filing.
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