WASHINGTON – A federal judge ordered the US government to provide responses to details of Trump’s deportation of immigrants under 18th century wartime law after arguing that civil rights groups violated a court’s restraint order overturning deportation.
The Department of Justice has been given four directives by District of Columbia Judge James Emmanuel Boasberg, filed by noon Tuesday. Among the requirements is a statement of oath that the government did not rely on the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 for its authority to deport Venezuelan men who flew to El Salvador over the weekend.
According to the order, “where the government is taking a position that it will not provide that information to the court under any circumstances, it must support such positions, including confidential authorities, if necessary.”
The American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a court briefing that the government violated the court’s order by not looking back on deportation flights headed to Honduras and El Salvador late Saturday.
Four directives
The Trump administration tried to dismiss the case, but Boasberg refused the motion.
Before Monday’s emergency hearing was late, the Justice Department defended Trump’s deportation flights, Court filing A federal judge said, “Oral orders are not enforceable as injunctions.”
At a hearing Monday, Boasberg ordered the Justice Department to issue an oath that after issuing a restraining order on Saturday, the man on the deportation flight was not left to the basis of alien enemy laws.
He also wants to know when the president signed the declaration and when it came into effect.
Boasberg also asked the Department of Justice to report how many people in the United States are subject to the law and how many of them are in custody.
He asks Justice Department lawyers to position the Trump administration on what form and in what form it will provide answers to court questions regarding flight details, according to the order.
On Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump posted a highly produced, dramatized video that appears to be a deported immigrant in uniform clothing, with hair and whiskers forced to be shaved by armed prison guards in El Salvador. The man in the video was shoved into the largest security cell of the giant El Salvador prison known as the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo.
“Beyond the concerns raised by the government’s own letter, there was an important media outlet reporting that the accused may have violated the court’s order.” The ACLU wrote, referring to the Trump administration.
The appeal has already been filed
The Trump administration has already appealed to the US Court of Appeals in the DC Circuit, urging the court to remove the case from Boasberg.
in Monday application The Trump administration argued in the Court of Appeal that the lower courts had revoked its powers.
“The government cannot answer sensitive questions about national security and diplomatic relations with a hurry without orderly briefing or showing that these questions are in any way important to live issues.
The Trump administration is also suing a lower court’s decision to allow class action lawsuits to include those exposed to declarations issued by the president over the weekend. The ACLU originally filed a lawsuit along with five Venezuelan men, threatened with imminent removal under the alien enemy law.
“The district court ordered the president to use his statutory and constitutional authority to address what he identified as an aggression or predatory aggression by groups that engage in hostile actions and erratic warfare,” the Trump administration said. I wrote it on Sunday’s appeal.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said during a press conference Monday that he was confident the Trump administration was “to win in court.”
She added that the US paid $6 million to El Salvador to detain 261 men deported to the country.
A well-known dispute could head to the US Supreme Court.
Saturday Event
The government had I said The presidential declaration, released on Saturday, uses the 1798 alien enemy law last called during World War II to detain and eliminate suspected members of the Venezuelan gangster Tren de Aragua age 14 and older.
In his declaration, President Donald Trump said he would detain and deport Tren de Aragua suspects, aged 14 and over. There are sculptures for naturalized citizens and legal permanent residents or green card holders.
“The evidence rebuttals that (Tren de Aragua) continues to invade, invade, attempt to invade the United States, and threaten to invade the country. “As the President of the United States and Commander, it is my strict obligation to protect the American people from the devastating effects of this invasion.”
To stop the use of alien enemy laws, the ACLU and other civil rights groups submitted an emergency request to Boasburg, the District of Columbia, with a hearing held on Saturday at 5pm. Boasberg was nominated for former President Barack Obama in 2011.
Flight record and Court Briefing Two US immigration customs and enforcement flights departed from Texas on Saturday – 5:45pm El Salvador and one Eastern 5:26pm Eastern Honduras.
About an hour later, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order, instructing his order to turn the government around the current air-repatriated flights.
“[A]According to Boasberg, New York will need to return to the US, but will need to return to the US, but will need to return to the US. However, this is what you need to ensure that you adhere to immediately. ”
The ACLU argues in its court records that both flights landed after the order was given by Boasberg.
The third Saturday flight from Texas to Honduras was at 7:37pm in the eastern part. Flight Records and Court briefing.
In filing before the Court of Appeal, the Trump administration argued that the district courts have no jurisdiction to issue temporary restraining orders and that the president has the authority to use alien enemy laws.
On Sunday, President of El Salvador, Naive Buquere, on social media, Reposted News articles about deportation flights that continued despite court orders.
He replied, “oopsie…too late.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reposted a response from a personal account from President El Salvador.
Rubio traveled to El Salvador and met with Buquere and spoke about accepting the deportation of its citizens from other countries. At these meetings, Buquere accepted “members of the Venezuela Tren de Aragua gang” and agreed to put them in prison. According to State Department records.
Due Process Concerns
U.S. immigration law already gives the authority to investigate, arrest and dismiss immigrants involved in criminal and harm in the country, and does not require wartime powers to go after Tren de Lagua, says Katherine Yong Ebright, a lawyer for the Brennan Center’s Freedom and National Security Program.
She said that evoking wartime authority for Trump is not about chasing “people who are proving crimes or hurting American communities.”
“It’s about chasing Venezuelans without a due process, because this law gives the president the power to say that.
Immigrants subject to the Foreign Enemy Act have no access to immigration judges or court hearings under the law.
Saturday’s declaration resembles the executive order signed by the president on his inauguration day. Designate cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and as specially designated global terrorists..
In his inauguration speech, he previewed his intention to designate the cartel as a foreign terrorist group in order to use alien enemy law.
“By calling the alien enemy law of 1798, our government directs us to use the full and enormous power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the existence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks.
Invasions by foreign governments must occur in order for alien enemies to be called, and in an executive order related to the cartel, the Trump administration claims that they are foreign beings. The cartels that the Trump administration has singled in order are MS-13 Gangsters and Trend Lagua.
Homeland Security Director Christie Noem has already revoked the protections granted to around half a million Venezuelans under the Biden administration. Early February, She refused to renew temporary status protection For the 350,000 Venezuelans set to expire on April 2nd. In her reasoning, she cited gang activities.
Ebright pointed out that when the law was last called, many of the Japanese, Italian and German immigrants detained during World War II had some form of legal status.
“I’d put the money that this declaration would cover people who are legally present,” she said.
Historical Uses of Alien Enemies
The last time the alien enemy law was summoned was invoked in 1941 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
However, even after World War II ended in 1945, the alien enemy law still existed for several years with the continued detention camps being continued.
She said the US Supreme Court supported then-President Harry Truman three years after World War II on the grounds that “it’s not political to say that the court was too political and that this wartime authority failed.”
“It’s something that alien enemies do and talk about something very important about possible abuse, but it doesn’t mean that the courts are really helpless to intervene via clear abuse of authority,” she said.
Ebright said there is a distinction between the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II and the current attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Today you have no distant wartime context,” she said. “The judges have eyes. We can see that there was no second Pearl Harbor done by the gang.”
Last updated at 6:53pm, March 17, 2025
