Judge finds cause to hold Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating deportation order

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, March 16, 2023. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via AP)

WASHINGTON — A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday said he has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court and warned he could seek officials’ prosecution for violating his orders last month to turn around planes carrying deportees to an El Salvador prison.

The ruling from U.S District Judge James E. Boasberg, whom President Donald Trump has said should be impeached, marks a dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches of government over the president’s powers to carry out key White House priorities.

Boasberg accused administration officials of rushing deportees out of the country under the Alien Enemies Act last month before they could challenge their removal in court, and then willfully disregarding his order that planes already in the air should return to the United States.

The judge said he could hold hearings and potentially refer the matter for prosecution if the administration does not act to remedy the violation. If Trump’s Justice Department leadership declines to prosecute the matter, Boasberg said he will appoint another attorney to do so.

“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders -- especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” wrote Boasberg, the chief judge of Washington’s federal court.

The administration said it would appeal.

“The President is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities across the country,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote in a post on X.

The case has become one of the most contentious amid a slew of legal battles being waged against the Republican administration that has put the White House on a collision course with the federal courts.

Administration officials have repeatedly criticized judges for reigning in the president’s actions, accusing the courts of improperly impinging on his executive powers. Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg, prompting a rare statement from Chief Justice John Roberts, who said “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

Boasberg wrote that the government’s “conduct betrayed a desire to outrun the equitable reach of the Judiciary.”

Boasberg said the government could avoid contempt proceedings if it takes custody of the deportees, who were sent to the El Salvador prison in violation of his order, so they have a chance to challenge their removal. It was not clear how that would work because the judge said the government “would not need to release any of those individuals, nor would it need to transport them back to the homeland.”

The judge did not say which official or officials could be held in contempt. He is giving the government until April 23 to explain the steps it has taken to remedy the violation, or instead identify the individual or people who made the decision not to turn the planes around.

In a separate case, the administration has acknowledged mistakenly deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the El Salvador prison, but does not intend to return him to the U.S. despite a Supreme Court ruling that the administration must “facilitate” his release. The judge in that case has said she is determining whether to undertake contempt proceedings, saying officials “appear to have done nothing to aid in Abrego Garcia’s release from custody and return to the United States.”

Boasberg, who was nominated for the federal bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, had ordered the administration last month not to deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act after Trump invoked the 1798 wartime law over what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

When Boasberg was told there were already planes in the air headed to El Salvador, which has agreed to house deported migrants in a notorious prison, the judge said the aircraft needed to be returned to the United States. But hours later, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced that the deportees had arrived in his country. In a social media post, he said, “Oopsie...too late” above an article referencing Boasberg’s order.

The administration has argued it did not violate any orders, noted the judge did not include the turnaround directive in his written order and said the planes had already left the U.S. by the time that order came down.

The Supreme Court earlier this month vacated Boasberg’s temporary order blocking the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, but said the immigrants must be given a chance to fight their removals before they are deported. The conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom.

Boasberg wrote that even though the Supreme Court found his order “suffered from a legal defect,” that “does not excuse the Government’s violation.” The judge added that the government appeared to have “defied the Court’s order deliberately and gleefully,” noting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio retweeted the post from Bukele after the planes landed in El Salvador despite the judge’s order.

“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory,” Boasberg wrote.

Alanna Durkin Richer and Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.