A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to give the hundreds of men deported to El Salvador in March under the Alien Enemies Act the right to challenge their detentions as unlawful.
In a 69-page order issued Wednesday, Judge James Boasberg gave the Trump administration until June 11 to come up with a plan to allow the men currently detained at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison to practice their due process rights.
“In short, the Government must facilitate the Class’s ability to seek habeas relief to contest their removal under the Act. Exactly what such facilitation must entail will be determined in future proceedings,” Boasberg wrote.
MORE: Judge hears arguments over fate of CECOT detainees
“Although the Court is mindful that such a remedy may implicate sensitive diplomatic or national-security concerns within the exclusive province of the Executive Branch, it also has a constitutional duty to provide a remedy that will ‘make good the wrong done,'” he wrote.
In what could portend the next chapter in a legal battle that has ensnared the Trump administration for nearly three months, Judge Boasberg reached the conclusion that the men — regardless of their alleged criminal status — deserve the right to challenge the government’s claim.
“Defendants plainly deprived these individuals of their right to seek habeas relief before their summary removal from the United States — a right that need not itself be vindicated through a habeas petition. Perhaps the President lawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act. Perhaps, moreover, Defendants are correct that Plaintiffs are gang members,” Boasberg wrote.
“But — and this is the critical point — there is simply no way to know for sure, as the CECOT Plaintiffs never had any opportunity to challenge the Government’s say-so,” he wrote.
In a statement Wednesday evening, the White House said the judge lacked the authority to issue his ruling.
“Judge Boasberg has no authority to intervene with immigration or national security – authority that rests squarely with President Trump and the Executive Branch,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “His current and previous attempts to prevent President Trump from deporting criminal illegal aliens poses a direct threat to the safety of the American people. Fortunately for the American people, Judge Boasberg does not have the last word.”
The Trump administration touched off a legal battle in March when it invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged that “many” of the men deported on March 15 lack criminal records in the United States — but said that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
