President Donald Trump speaks at a reception celebrating Greek Independence Day in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 24, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).
The Trump administration is continuing to insist it did not violate a federal court order by refusing to turn around several planes carrying more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, all of whom were summarily deported without due process under an 18th century wartime power.
The Justice Department on Tuesday told Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg that his March 15 order enjoining the government from summarily “removing” migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 did not require planes already outside U.S. airspace to return to the country, as the “removal” of the migrants had already taken place when the order was issued.
“[T]he injunction thus bars the Government from removing class members; it does not require the Government to undo removals that have already occurred,” the DOJ wrote in the 14-page filing (emphasis in original). “Here, any members of the putative class aboard the referenced flights had already left the United States when the minute order was entered, and thus had already been removed. No court has the power to compel the President to return them, and there is no sound basis to read the Court’s minute order as requiring that unprecedented step.”
The filing comes one day after the Trump administration invoked the state secrets privilege to deny Boasberg any additional information about the deportation flights, claiming that doing so could damage foreign relations and national security.
