US Judge Warns Of ‘Criminal Contempt’ Against Trump Administration In Deportation Case

<p>A US judge said on Wednesday that he has found a “probable cause” to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in “criminal contempt of court” in a deportation case, warning that he could seek the prosecution of officials for violating his orders last month to stop planes carrying deportees to an El Salvador prison.</p>
<p>US District Judge James E. Boasberg, whom Trump suggested should be impeached, accused the administration officials of violating his explicit deportation orders, thereby escalating a tense standoff between the judicial and executive branches.</p>
<h3>What’s The Deportation Case?</h3>
<p>Last month, the US judge had ordered the Trump administration to not deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act after the President invoked the 1798 wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants in what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.</p>
<p>When Boasberg was informed about the planes headed to El Salvador, which had agreed to house the migrants, he ordered the aircraft be returned to the US. However, a few hours later, El Salvador&rsquo;s president, Nayib Bukele, announced in a social media post that the deportees had arrived in his country, saying “Oopsie…too late.”</p>
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<h3>Judge Directs Trump Administration To ‘Remedy Violation'</h3>
<p>According to Boasberg, officials acted under the Alien Enemies Act to expedite removal of deportees before they had a chance to challenge their deportations in court, Associated Press reported.</p>
<p>The judge warned that if the administration fails to correct the violation and the Department of Justice decline to act, he is prepared to appoint an independent attorney to pursue the case.</p>
<p>”The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders &mdash; especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” the chief judge of Washington&rsquo;s federal court, as reported by AP.</p>
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<p>Trump administration said it would appeal. It has argued that no ordered were violated and that the judge did not include the turnaround directive in ihis order. It also said that the planes had already departed for El Salvador by the time the order came.</p>
<p>”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.</p>
<p>Boasberg stated that the government&rsquo;s “conduct betrayed a desire to outrun the equitable reach of the Judiciary” as its actions demonstrated a “willful disregard for its order”.</p>
<p>He further said the contempt proceedings could be avoided if the government attempted to “remedy the violation” by taking custody of those deportees sent to the El Salvador prison in violation of his order, giving them an opportunity to challenge their removal, the report said.</p>
<p>However, it remains unclear how that would work because the judge stated the government “would not need to release any of those individuals, nor would it need to transport them back to the homeland.”</p>
<p>Although Boasberg did not say which official or officials could be held in contempt, he gave the government until April 23 to detail the steps taken by it to remedy the violation. If not, it has asked to either identify the individual or people who bypassed his order and decided not to turn the planes to the prison around.</p>
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