Federal judge demands Trump admin provide information on Tren de Aragua deportations

In a 45-minute hearing on Monday, a federal judge questioned Trump administration lawyers over the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and a deportation flight that took off from the US bound for El Salvador as he handed down a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from invoking the act to swiftly deport illegal immigrant gang members.

The administration attorneys had requested that the hearing be called off, but US District Judge James Boasberg declined, ordering them into court for a "fact-finding hearing" over the use of the Act, and whether the administration knowingly defied his order, per Fox News. A hearing is set for Friday over the administration’s request to vacate the case.

Justice Department attorney Abhishek Kambli said that the Trump administration had complied with the written order from Boasberg, which came hours after the oral ruling. Per NBC News, Kamblu argued that the written ruling took precedence over the oral one issued from the bench, saying, "We believe that we’ve complied with the order."

"You’re saying that you felt that you could disregard it because it wasn’t a written order,” Boasberg said. He called the argument a "stretch."

Federal attorneys declined during the hearing to reveal how many deportation flights took off from the US on Saturday, citing national security protections. One lawyer for the administration said, "Those are operational issues, and I am not at liberty to provide information."

Kambli said, "I am only authorized to say what we have said" in court filings, the one in question stating that the plaintiffs "cannot use these proceedings to interfere with the President’s national-security and foreign-affairs authority, and the Court lacks jurisdiction to do so."

Near the end of the hearing, Judge Boasberg said, "My orders don’t seem to carry much weight."

Boasberg ordered the Department of Justice to hand over more information in writing by Tuesday afternoon. "If the government takes the position that it will not provide that information to the Court under any circumstances, it must support such position, including with classified authorities if necessary," Boasberg said.

The Saturday order from Boasberg ordered that the Trump administration halt any planned deportations, and he said in a hearing that "any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States." During the hearing he questioned the Department of Justice, "Isn’t then the better course, to return the planes to the United States and figure out what to do, than to say, ‘We don’t care, we’ll do what we want?"

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the outlet the plane in question had already "left US airspace" by the time Boasberg’s order came down. The ACLU requested that the court order the Trump administration to submit declarations under oath that the planes had in fact taken off after the order was handed down.