Officials in US president Donald Trump’s administration could face criminal contempt charges for violating a federal judge’s order halting deportations of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang who had no chance to challenge their removals.
In a written ruling US district judge James Boasberg in Washington found “probable cause” to hold officials in criminal contempt of court, saying the administration demonstrated “wilful disregard” for his March 15th order barring the government from deporting alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Many of the migrants’ lawyers and family members say those deported are not gang members, and were never given a chance to contest the US government’s assertion that they were.
The judge’s ruling is the closest any judge has come to suggesting the administration could be punished since Mr Trump returned to the White House on January 20th, and escalates the confrontation between the judicial and executive branches.
“It’s a very strong rebuke to the administration, and opens the door for further proceedings to determine who, in fact, disregarded the orders,” said Prof Jonathan Hafetz at the Seton Hall University school of law in New Jersey. He said it was another step toward an inevitable clash with the courts.
White House communications director Steven Cheung said on X the administration would appeal.
The Trump administration faces more than 150 legal challenges to policies it has enacted during its first three months. Democrats and some legal analysts have argued officials in some cases are dragging their feet in complying with unfavourable court orders, signalling a potential willingness to disobey an independent, co-equal branch of government.
On Tuesday a federal judge in Maryland said she would ramp up an inquiry into whether the administration violated an order to secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man the administration has acknowledged was wrongly deported to El Salvador, but said she would not hold the administration in contempt just yet.
Mr Trump called for judge Boasberg’s impeachment after he blocked the deportations. That prompted a rare rebuke from US chief justice John Roberts, who said appeals, not impeachments, were the proper response to disagreements with court orders.
When judge Boasberg issued the March 15th order two planes of Venezuelans were on their way from the US to El Salvador. After the judge’s order was issued the migrants were handed over to the custody of El Salvador’s government, where they are being held at the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center.
In his ruling on Wednesday judge Boasberg noted that US secretary of state Marco Rubio had retweeted an X post in which El Salvador president Nayib Bukele shared a link to a news story about his order blocking deportations and said, “Oopsie...Too late”.
“Boasts by defendants intimated that they had defied the court’s order deliberately and gleefully,” the judge wrote.
The Trump administration says it did not violate judge Boasberg’s March 15th order. In court papers justice department lawyers have said the migrants had already been deported by the time the judge ruled because the planes had left US airspace. They also said judge Boasberg lacked the authority to order the government to bring the migrants back from overseas.
The case stems from Mr Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members. It is best known for its use to intern and deport Japanese, German and Italian immigrants during the second World War.
In Wednesday’s ruling judge Boasberg said the “most obvious” way for the administration to avoid contempt would be to allow migrants deported under the law in violation of his order to challenge their removal in court. The judge said that would not require bringing the migrants back to the US, adding that the administration could “propose other methods of coming into compliance”.
The supreme court on April 8th paused Boasberg’s temporary order blocking Alien Enemies Act deportations, but said anyone else targeted for deportation under the law must have the chance to challenge their removal in court.
On Wednesday judge Boasberg wrote that the supreme court’s decision did not remove the government’s obligation to comply with his order while it was still in effect. – Reuters
