More than 250 people the U.S. government says are foreign gang members arrived in El Salvador by plane on March 16, where El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele confirmed they will be sent to the country’s mega-prison CECOT.
El Salvador Presidency/Handout
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El Salvador Presidency/Handout
Government lawyers are expected back in court on Friday to debate the legality of President Trump’s proclamation of the Alien Enemies Act.
Trump invoked the 1798 law last weekend to target members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang he says is invading the U.S.
Judge James Boasberg, a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., blocked immediate deportations under the law in response to a lawsuit brought by immigrant rights groups, and ordered the government to turn around any planes already in the air. But three flights of more than 250 people deported from the U.S. still ended up in El Salvador the same evening.
Friday’s hearing over the merits of Boasberg’s temporary restraining order comes as the case has become a flashpoint between the judiciary and executive branches, with some Republican officials accusing Boasberg of overreach and calling for his impeachment.
Boasberg has questioned the government over whether the flights of detainees to El Salvador defied his order.
And for a week, the administration has declined to provide all the information he requested about the flights.
In a legal filing on Thursday afternoon, Boasberg called the government’s latest response to whether it had violated his judicial order “woefully insufficient” and said the government “again evaded its obligations.”
The Justice Department, meanwhile, says “the court’s superfluous questioning of sensitive national security information is inappropriate judicial overreach.”
While Friday’s hearing is about the underlying case, questions about compliance with Boasberg’s orders could come up as well.
