Judge threatens Trump officials with contempt over El Salvador deportations

Washington: A federal judge said he had found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to an El Salvador prison.

The ruling from US District Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of Washington’s federal court whom President Donald Trump has said should be impeached, marks a dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches of government over the president’s powers to carry out key White House priorities.

Donald Trump in March ordered the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members from the United States to a prison in El Salvador.Credit: El Salvador PPO via AP

On Thursday (AEST), Boasberg accused administration officials of rushing deportees out of the country under the Alien Enemies Act in March before they could challenge their removal in court, and then wilfully disregarding his order that planes already in the air return to the US.

The judge warned he could hold hearings and potentially refer the matter for prosecution if the administration did not act to remedy the violation. If the Justice Department declined to prosecute the matter, Boasberg said he would appoint another attorney to do so.

“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders – especially by officials of a co-ordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” wrote Boasberg.

The administration said it would appeal.

Judge James Boasberg.Credit: AP

“The President is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities across the country,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote in a post on X.

The case has become one of the most contentious amid a slew of legal battles being waged against the Republican administration that has put the White House on a collision course with the federal courts.

Administration officials have repeatedly criticised judges for reigning in the president’s actions, accusing the courts of improperly impinging on his executive powers.

Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg, prompting a rare statement from Chief Justice John Roberts, who said “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision”.

Boasberg said the government could avoid contempt proceedings if it took custody of the deportees, so they have a chance to challenge their removal. It was not clear how that would work because he said the government “would not need to release any of those individuals, nor would it need to transport them back to the homeland.”

The judge did not say which official or officials could be held in contempt. He gave the government until April 23 to explain the steps it has taken to remedy the violation, or instead identify the individual or people who made the decision not to turn the planes around.

In a separate case, the administration has acknowledged mistakenly deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the prison, but does not intend to return him to the US despite a Supreme Court ruling that the administration must “facilitate” his release. The judge in that case has said she is determining whether to undertake contempt proceedings, saying officials “appear to have done nothing to aid in Garcia’s release from custody and return to the United States”.

Boasberg, who was nominated for the federal bench by former Democratic president Barack Obama, had ordered the administration last month not to deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act after Trump invoked the 1798 wartime law over what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

When Boasberg was told there were already planes in the air headed to El Salvador, which has agreed to house deported migrants in a notorious prison, the judge said the aircraft needed to be returned to the US.

But hours later, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced that the deportees had arrived in his country. In a social media post, he said, “Oopsie...too late” above an article referencing Boasberg’s order.

The administration has argued it did not violate any orders, noted the judge did not include the turnaround directive in his written order and said the planes had already left the US by the time that order came down.

The Supreme Court earlier this month vacated Boasberg’s temporary order blocking the deportations under the act, but said the immigrants must be given a chance to fight their removals before they are deported. The conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom.

Boasberg wrote that even though the Supreme Court found his order “suffered from a legal defect”, that “does not excuse the government’s violation”.

He wrote that the government’s “conduct betrayed a desire to outrun the equitable reach of the Judiciary.”

“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory,” Boasberg wrote.

An undated photo of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.Credit: CASA via AP

Meanwhile, US Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen travelled to El Salvador to push for the release of Garcia.

Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at a news conference in San Salvador, the capital, after the meeting that Vice President Félix Ulloa said his government couldn’t return Garcia to the US and declined to allow Van Hollen to visit him in the notorious gang prison where he’s being held.

“Why is the government of El Salvador continuing to imprison a man where they have no evidence that he’s committed any crime and they have not been provided any evidence from the United States that he has committed any crime?” Van Hollen told reporters after the meeting. “They should just let him go.”

AP