Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem directed that hundreds of Venezuelan men who were removed from the U.S. in March be transferred to El Salvador, despite a federal judge ordering deportation planes turned around, according to a court filing from Trump administration lawyers.
The filing, submitted late Tuesday, says DOJ and DHS officials conveyed legal advice to Noem after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg first gave an oral directive and then a written order that sought to block the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA). “After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador,” DOJ said.
The legal advice was given to Joseph Mazzara, acting general counsel of DHS, by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and former top DOJ official Emil Bove, who then passed it on to Noem, the filing states.
The filing comes as Judge Boasberg said last week he is moving forward with a contempt inquiry into whether Trump administration officials violated his March court order. In March, the Trump administration invoked the AEA—an 18th-century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with limited due process—to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador, arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
At a March 15 hearing, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes carrying the detainees be turned around. Justice Department attorneys later argued the judge’s oral instructions directing the flights to return were defective, and the deportations proceeded.
On Tuesday, DOJ asserted the legal advice given to Noem “did not violate the court’s order, much less constitute contempt.” The department added, “Specifically, the Court’s written order did not purport to require the return of detainees who had already been removed, and the earlier oral directive was not a binding injunction, especially after the written order.”
Boasberg’s earlier finding that the Trump administration likely acted in contempt was paused for months after an appeals court issued an emergency stay. While a federal appeals court on Friday declined to reinstate Boasberg’s original order, the ruling allows him to continue with his fact-finding inquiry.