Boasberg moves to hold Trump administration in contempt over deportation flights

A federal judge found probable cause Wednesday to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying his order to immediately halt deportations under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act and turn around any airborne planes.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s order gives the administration a final opportunity to come into compliance but says he otherwise will take steps to identify the specific people who flouted his March 15 ruling, which was later lifted by the Supreme Court, and refer them for prosecution.

“The Court ultimately determines that the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order, sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt,” Boasberg wrote.

“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,” he continued.

The order is a blow to a Trump administration that has dug in on its claims it has no obligation to return any of the men swiftly deported to a Salvadoran prison after Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which has been used only three previous times, all during wars.

The Trump administration said it plans to appeal.

“We plan to seek immediate appellate relief. 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 spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote on the social platform X.

In the order, Boasberg faulted the administration for having “spirited out” of the country more than 100 Venezuelans amid their efforts to challenge the legality of their deportations. He also highlighted top Trump officials’ social media posts, including one by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, relishing that the flights were still headed to El Salvador.

Shortly after Boasberg ordered the flights turn around, Rubio reposted a post from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele saying “Oopsie…too late” with a laughing emoji.

“It appeared that the Government had transferred members of the Plaintiff class into El Salvador’s custody hours after this Court’s injunction prohibited their deportation under the Proclamation. Worse, boasts by Defendants intimated that they had defied the Court’s Order deliberately and gleefully,” Boasberg wrote.

“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” he added later.

Boasberg is an appointee of former President Obama who was previously nominated to a local court by former President George W. Bush.

The Trump administration has argued that because the men are now in Salvadoran custody, the U.S. has no power to secure their return, despite paying the Central American government $6 million to house the men for the next year.

Boasberg’s order gives the Trump administration an opportunity to “purge” or rectify its contempt but stopped short of requiring what he called “the most obvious way” for the administration to do so, instead asking the government to propose options for doing so.

“The most obvious way for Defendants to do so here is by asserting custody of the individuals who were removed in violation of the Court’s classwide TRO [temporary restraining order] so that they might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability through a habeas proceeding,” he wrote.

“Per the terms of the TRO, the Government would not need to release any of those individuals, nor would it need to transport them back to the homeland. The Court will also give Defendants an opportunity to propose other methods of coming into compliance, which the Court will evaluate.”

The judge acknowledged that the Supreme Court later found the order was legally defective but said it does not “excuse the Government’s violation.”

Unanimously, the justices agreed migrants must have an opportunity for judicial review before they are deported under the Alien Enemies Act, but a majority held that they must bring their challenge via a habeas petition, which must be brought where someone is physically detained.

Now, at least seven different cases from New York, Texas, Colorado, California and Nevada have been launched by men who expect to be imminently deported under the Alien Enemies Act.

The parties are set to tell Boasberg later Wednesday whether they believe the case can still move forward in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Boasberg also blasted the administration for a series of actions it took leading up to his decision, noting they repeatedly failed to answer basic questions he asked about the flights — a confrontation that resulted in the Trump administration moving to claim the state secrets privilege barred it from providing basic details about when the flights took off and landed.

Boasberg also said the administration made “several hyper-technical legal arguments” about whether officials complied with his orders, including asserting that they had no obligation to comply with his oral order, only his written one.

“Such arguments were unconvincing then and remain so now,” he wrote.

Updated at 1:51 p.m. EDT