Judge says he will move forward with contempt inquiry into AEA deportations
A federal judge Wednesday said he is moving forward with his contempt inquiry into whether Trump administration officials violated a court order by deporting hundreds of men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act in March.
In a hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said he would like to move forward with the inquiry quickly, and ordered the parties to submit a proposal by Monday on how the case should proceed.
The Trump administration invoked the AEA -- an 18th-century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process -- to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States.
Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes be turned around, but Justice Department attorneys said his oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and the deportations proceeded as planned.
The federal judge said Wednesday that the next steps would likely be to hear from witnesses including Erez Reuveni, a DOJ attorney who was fired from the department in April after he appeared in federal court in Maryland and told a judge that the government had mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
"I certainly intend to find out what happened that day," Judge Boasberg said.
Boasberg's earlier finding that the Trump administration likely acted in contempt was halted for months after an appeals court issued an emergency stay. While a federal appeals court on Friday declined to reinstate Boasberg's original order, the ruling allowed him to move forward with his fact-finding inquiry.
"Class members are still recovering from the serious harm, including trauma, they experienced at CECOT," the ACLU said in a recent court filing.
In response to the motion for a preliminary injunction, attorneys for the Department of Justice argued in court filings that the Venezuelans' release from El Salvador "has further undermined their claims."
"Petitioners have not shown that they suffer any ongoing injury traceable to Respondents, for they are apparently at liberty in their home country, and any ongoing threats to their health and safety come from third parties not before this Court," DOJ attorneys said.
But an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said that an overwhelming majority of the deported Venezuelans they contacted want to return to the U.S. to pursue their claims.
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said the AEA designation denied the men due process when they were deported and that they should be able challenge their removal and their designation as Tren de Aragua members.
Gelernt also raised the possibility of the Venezuelans being able to file habeas petitions from Venezuela and participating in the legal proceedings remotely.
"There is real fear about talking," Gelernt said. "There is word out there that they are being surveilled, that their phones are being tapped, and to some extent we have stopped trying to have these candid conversations with them. They are still very traumatized about what happened in CECOT."
