Judge calls Trump administration's latest response on deportation
flights 'woefully insufficient'
[March 21, 2025]
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge instructed the Trump
administration on Thursday to explain why its failure to turn
around flights carrying deportees to El Salvador did not violate
his court order in a growing showdown between the judicial and
executive branches. |
Jasmin Ramirez holds a photo of her son, Angelo Escalona, at a
government-organized rally protesting the deportation of alleged members
of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, who were transferred to an El
Salvador prison, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP
Photo/Ariana Cubillos) |
|
U.S. District Judge Jeb Boasberg demanded answers after flights
carrying Venezuelan immigrants alleged by the Trump
administration to be gang members landed in El Salvador after
the judge temporarily blocked deportations under an 18th century
wartime law. Boasberg had directed the administration to return
to the U.S. planes that were already in the air when he ordered
the halt.
Boasberg had given the administration until noon Thursday to
either provide more details about the flights or make a claim
that it must be withheld because it would harm “state secrets.”
The administration resisted the judge’s request, calling it an
“unnecessary judicial fishing” expedition.
In a written order, Boasberg called Trump officials' latest
response “woefully insufficient.” The judge said the
administration “again evaded its obligations” by merely
repeating "the same general information about the flights.” And
he ordered the administration to “show cause,” as to why it
didn't violate his court order to turn around the planes,
increasing the prospect that he may consider holding
administration officials in contempt of court.
The Justice Department has said the judge's verbal directions
did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed
and that it couldn’t apply to flights that had already left the
U.S. A Justice Department spokesperson said Thursday that it
“continues to believe that the court’s superfluous questioning
of sensitive national security information is inappropriate
judicial overreach.”
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told the
judge Thursday the administration needed more time to decide
whether it would invoke the state secrets privilege in an effort
to block the information's release.
Boasberg ordered Trump officials by Friday to submit a sworn
declaration by a person “with direct involvement in the
Cabinet-level discussions" about the state secrets privilege and
to tell the court by next Tuesday whether the administration
will invoke it.
In a deepening conflict between the judicial and executive
branch, Trump and many of his allies have called for impeaching
Boasberg, who was nominated to the federal bench by Democratic
President Barack Obama. In a rare statement earlier this week,
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rejected such calls,
saying “impeachment is not an appropriate response to
disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
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