Updated March 21, 2025 at 16:52 PM ET
Government lawyers were back in court Friday to debate the legality of President Trump's invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to target members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang he says is invading the U.S.
Judge James Boasberg said the policy ramifications of using the Alien Enemies Act in this way were "incredibly troublesome and problematic."
Boasberg also accused the government's lawyers of using "disrespectful language." He clarified that his order last weekend did not call for immigrants in U.S. custody to be released or that regular deportations be halted. Rather, he said, he was focusing on the use of the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg questioned the premise of the use of the 1798 law – that the U.S. is being invaded by Venezuelan gang members. "I agree with you that this is a long way from the heartland of the act," he said to the plaintiff's attorney during the hearing. There is "a lot of language in Supreme Court cases that give me pause so that I can go ahead and say this isn't an invasion."
At issue during the hearing was the history of how the U.S. treated people considered potential alien enemies. Boasberg said that even in the case of foreign fighters captured during the war on terrorism and held in Guantanamo Bay, there was a robust review of whether or not the accused were members of al-Qaida.
Lawyers with the ACLU told the court that foreign nationals are entitled to due process under the U.S. Constitution. They also noted that international treaty obligations prevent the U.S. from sending people to a state where there is substantial danger they will be subjected to torture. There have been widespread accusations of severe human rights violations at Salvadoran detention sites.
Last weekend 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 carrying more than 250 people ended up in El Salvador the same evening.
Friday's hearing over the merits of Boasberg's temporary restraining order came 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. (this is dated)
Court filings escalate
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier this week provided a breakdown of the 261 people on the three flights, saying 137 were deported under the Alien Enemies Act, 101 were Venezuelans deported under regular immigration proceedings, and 23 were members of the MS-13 gang.
It is unclear which of the three planes carried the 137 alleged Tren de Aragua members.
In an emergency filing on Wednesday, for example, lawyers wrote that the case has "devolved into a picayune dispute over the micromanagement of immaterial fact finding," and warned it could open the door to "unnecessary judicial fishing expeditions."
In a separate appeal to the D.C. Circuit, the Justice Department also requested that Boasberg be removed from the case.
In the meantime, lawyers told Boasberg that the administration is evaluating "whether to invoke the state secrets privilege" with regard to the flight details the court wants, they said. Such a privilege allows executive branch officials to refuse to provide evidence in a court case if they say it could harm national security or foreign relations.
Trump attacks Boasberg directly
Trump himself called Boasberg a "radical left" judge and "a lunatic," suggesting during an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham earlier this week that he was looking for publicity.
"We have bad judges — we have very bad judges — and these are judges that shouldn't be allowed. I think at a certain point you have to start looking at what do you do when you have a rogue judge?" Trump said.
Trump also posted on Truth Social about how the "crooked judges" acting against him on immigration should be impeached, in what appeared to be a reference to Boasberg.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters on Wednesday the administration as a whole stands by Trump's comments about Boasberg.
"You cannot have a democracy where single, individual district court judges can assume the full, total powers of the commander in chief," Miller said.
Congressional action would be needed to impeach a judge. It's unclear if there is enough support for such action.
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