Judge rules probable cause to hold Trump administration in ‘contempt’ for deportation flights

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg upped his feud with President Trump on Wednesday by finding probable cause to hold his administration in contempt of court for continuing to carry out deportations to El Salvador despite his orders to turn planes around.

Judge Boasberg, an Obama appointee to the court in Washington, said he will give Mr. Trump’s team a chance to fix things by giving hundreds of gang suspect deportees a chance to challenge their deportations. Otherwise, he said, he would figure out which Trump officials are responsible for defying his orders, and he would refer them for criminal prosecution.

He said if the Justice Department refuses, he would appoint another lawyer to prosecute the case.

Judge Boasberg said the government’s conduct throughout March 15 seemed to be an attempt to deport the migrants as quickly as possible to evade judicial scrutiny.

“Taken together, this behavior indicates ’deliberate or reckless disregard’ of the order … leading this court to conclude that there is probable cause that defendants willingly disobeyed a binding judicial decree,” the judge ruled.

The White House vowed an “immediate” appeal.

“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,” said White House Communications Director Steven Cheung.

At issue were three planeloads of migrants sent on March 15 to El Salvador. Most of them were Venezuelans who Mr. Trump believed to be part of Tren de Aragua, and whom he was deporting using powers under the Alien Enemies Act.

That 1798 law allowed him to bypass the regular immigration system and speed the deportations by dint of his having declared TdA a terrorist organization involved in an invasion or incursion into the U.S.

Lawyers had filed a lawsuit early on March 15 trying to delay the deportations, arguing that some of the potential targets weren’t members of TdA.

Judge Boasberg quickly ordered a hearing.

But the government continued its deportation plans, although it pulled the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit off the manifest, so they weren’t deported.

After the first two planes were in the air, Judge Boasberg ordered that they be turned around, and future flights grounded.

The Trump administration continued the flights, arguing the planes were out of U.S. airspace and beyond the judge’s jurisdiction.

A third plane took off after the order, but the government says those migrants were deported under the regular immigration law and beyond the reach of Judge Boasberg’s order, which only applied to deportees under the Alien Enemies Act.

Judge Boasberg said the government hid details of the flights from him during the March 15 court hearing, as it “rushed to load people onto planes and get them airborne.”

“Such conduct suggests an attempt to evade an injunction and deny those aboard the planes the chance to avail themselves of the judicial review that the government itself later told the Supreme Court is ‘obviously’ available to them,” the judge ruled.

Mr. Trump and Judge Boasberg have been battling for weeks, with the president calling for his impeachment.

The Supreme Court has weighed in on the case, finding that Judge Boasberg didn’t have jurisdiction to hear it. The justices said the proper challenge to AEA deportations is a “habeas” proceeding, a narrow but powerful challenge to the government’s detention.

Habeas challenges need to be brought in the location where someone is being held, and none of the Venezuelan deportation targets were in the District of Columbia, where Judge Boasberg sits.

Judge Boasberg said Wednesday that even though the big legal issues are beyond his reach, the defiance of his original orders is still within his jurisdiction.

His ruling Wednesday is the furthest any judge has gone in holding members of Mr. Trump’s team in contempt.

Judge Paula Xinis, another Obama appointee who sits on the court in Maryland, is also exploring contempt over the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was on one of the three March 15 planeloads.

Judge Xinis has ordered the government to bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back.

Judge Boasberg has told the government it should give the deportees a chance to challenge their removal somehow. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they need to be brought back to the U.S., much less released into communities.

He also said he would let the government suggest other ways to “purge” the contempt behavior.