The federal judge attempting to block the Trump administration from deporting suspected Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act said Thursday that the Justice Department provided a “woefully insufficient” response to his demands for more details on the deportation flights.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote in a three-page ruling that he was not satisfied with the submission of an ICE officer attesting that deportation flights carrying 250 illegal aliens, including suspected gang members, had left before he issued an order to stop the flights. Boasberg also said he needed more information about the ICE officer’s statement indicating the Trump administration was considering the invocation of state secrets privilege.
“This is woefully insufficient. To begin, the Government cannot proffer a regional ICE official to attest to Cabinet-level discussions of the state-secrets privilege; indeed, his declaration on that point, not surprisingly, is based solely on his unsubstantiated ‘understand[ing],” Boasberg said.
Boasberg was responding to a declaration by Texas ICE Officer Robert Cerna, who reaffirmed the Trump administration’s previous statements about the timing of the deportation flights last weekend to El Salvador.
“I understand that Cabinet Secretaries are currently actively considering whether to invoke the state secrets privilege over the other facts requested by the Court’s order. Doing so is a serious matter that requires careful consideration of national security and foreign relations, and it cannot properly be undertaken in just 24 hours,” Cerna said, according to Boasberg’s order.
Boasberg’s ruling gave the Trump administration three more deadlines to make additional filings in the case, which started after leftist groups sued to stop the deportation flights.
The liberal judge said that the Justice Department should file a sworn declaration by 10:00 am ET on Friday regarding the state-secrets discussion from “a person with direct involvement in the Cabinet-level discussions.”
He also gave a March 25 deadline for the Trump administration to claim state secrets privilege and to file an argument defending its decision not to return two deportation flights to the United States after he put a temporary restraining order on the use of the Alien Enemies Act.
President Donald Trump has called for Boasberg to be impeached, and again on Thursday said that he was trying to erode the power of the presidency.
“Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the Power of the Presidency,” Trump posted on Truth Social.” He is a local, unknown Judge, a Grandstander, looking for publicity, and it cannot be for any other reason, because his ‘Rulings’ are so ridiculous, and inept. SAVE AMERICA!”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Boasberg has a history of stonewalling Trump’s immigration policies and spared one of the FBI officials behind the Russiagate hoax from prison. Elizabeth Manson, his wife, has also been involved in partisan political activity and donated more than $11,000 to Democratic candidates, federal data shows.
