ordered deportation planes turned around: DOJ />
2:33Minister of Justice and Public Safety Hector Villatoro, (R), accompanies Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, second from (R), during an inspection of the Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) on March 26, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)Pool/Getty Images
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem instructed that hundreds of Venezuelan males, who were expelled from the U.S. in March, be relocated to El Salvador, despite a federal judge instructing deportation flights to return, as per a fresh court submission from Trump administration legal representatives.
In the late Tuesday filing, the Department of Justice articulated that DOJ and DHS authorities communicated their legal counsel to Noem after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg initially gave a verbal instruction, then a formal written mandate, that aimed to prevent the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
"Following the receipt of this legal guidance, Secretary Noem ordered that the AEA detainees, who had been taken out of the United States prior to the Court's mandate, could be handed over to El Salvador's jurisdiction," DOJ stated on Tuesday.
Minister of Justice and Public Safety Hector Villatoro, (R), accompanies Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, second from (R), during an inspection of the Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) on March 26, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)Pool/Getty Images
That legal advice was rendered to Joseph Mazzara, the acting chief counsel of DHS, by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and former senior DOJ official Emil Bove, who in turn conveyed it to Noem, as stated in the filing.
The filing emerges after Judge Boasberg announced the prior week that he is proceeding with his contempt investigation into whether Trump administration officials contravened his March court decree.
In March, The Trump administration employed the AEA — a wartime authority from the 18th century utilized to remove noncitizens with minimal due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang associates to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador, asserting that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua represents a "hybrid criminal state" engaging in an invasion of the United States.
During a March 15 court session, Boasberg mandated a temporary restraining order and directed that the planes transporting the detainees be rerouted; however, Justice Department attorneys asserted that his verbal instructions, which ordered the flight’s return, were deficient, and the deportations proceeded as initially scheduled.
More than 250 suspected gang participants reach El Salvador via aircraft, encompassing 238 affiliates of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and 23 individuals from the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the U.S. in San Salvador, El Salvador, on March 16, 2025. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele verified that they will be transferred to the country’s well-known mega-prison at the CECOP facility. San Salvador forces implemented significant security precautions.Anadolu via Getty Images
On Tuesday, DOJ conveyed that the legal counsel furnished to Noem "did not infringe upon the court's directive, let alone constitute contempt."
"Particularly, the Court's documented order did not purport to mandate the return of detainees already removed, and the earlier verbal instruction did not serve as a binding injunction, notably following the issuance of the written mandate," DOJ elaborated
Boasberg's initial determination that the Trump administration may have acted in contempt experienced a halt for several months after an appeals court enacted an emergency stay. Despite a federal appeals court on Friday refusing to reinstate Boasberg's initial directive, the verdict empowers him to proceed with his fact-finding investigation.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
