Judge demands answers of Trump administration in Venezuela deportation case

By Ted Hesson and Jack Queen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. federal judge on Monday pressed the Trump administration to provide details about hundreds of Venezuelans it deported despite a court order barring it from doing so, and gave the government until Tuesday to explain why officials believed they had complied with his order.

President Donald Trump's administration deported more than 200 Venezuelans it says were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that has been linked to kidnapping, extortion and contract killings, to El Salvador over the weekend, even as Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked the government from using a wartime law to carry out the deportations.

Boasberg had earlier instructed the government to provide details on the timing of the flights that transported the Venezuelans to El Salvador, including whether they took off after his order was issued.

He upbraided the government's lawyer for the administration's response during a hearing on Monday.

"Why are you showing up today without answers?" Boasberg asked.

The hearing followed a request by the government to remove the judge from the case. The Trump administration has challenged the historic checks and balances between the U.S. branches of government.

Since taking office in January, Trump has sought to push the boundaries of executive power, cutting spending authorized by Congress, dismantling agencies and firing thousands of federal workers.

Monday's session was prompted by an emergency hearing on Saturday in which the American Civil Liberties Union, a civil rights group, requested that Boasberg issue a two-week temporary block on Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out the deportations.

The White House asserted on Sunday that federal courts have no jurisdiction over Trump's authority to expel foreign enemies under the 18th-century law, historically used only in wartime, though it also said it had complied with the order.

In a court filing shortly before Monday's hearing, the Trump administration said a spoken directive from the judge on Saturday to return any planes carrying the migrants was "not enforceable" because it was not in a written order.

The administration said it did not violate Boasberg's subsequent written order barring immigration authorities from removing migrants because the planes had already departed when it was issued.

But the judge said in court he still wanted to know when flights left, where they were going, when they left U.S. airspace and when they landed in a foreign country. He also asked when individuals were transferred to foreign custody.

"There is a lot of operational national security and foreign relations at risk," said Abhishek Kambli, a Justice Department attorney, explaining why the Trump administration was resistant to sharing information.

Boasberg ordered the government by noon on Tuesday to provide details such as the timing of flight departures and arrivals in foreign countries, number of people deported and why the government did not believe it could make that information public.

Boasberg did not say whether the government violated his orders from Saturday.

The judge appeared skeptical at times at the Trump administration's rationale for not returning the planes to the U.S. He repeatedly pressed Kambli, who repeatedly said there were matters he could not share publicly.

GOVERNMENT POSITION QUESTIONED

Some legal experts said the plane's location in the air when the orders were issued was irrelevant.

Michael J. Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, said the argument "borders on the absurd" and was "contrary to well-settled constitutional law" holding that federal officials are subject to the Constitution no matter where they are.

"A governmental plane on governmental business is not in a law-free zone," Gerhardt said, adding: "If that is not the case, then the government can simply do anything it apparently wants to do so long as it is not operating any longer on American soil."

With a Republican-controlled Congress largely backing Trump's agenda, federal judges have often been the only constraint on his executive actions, putting many orders on hold while they consider their legality. In some cases, advocacy groups have said the administration is refusing to comply with judicial orders.

The Trump administration has variously described the deported Venezuelans as gang members, "monsters," or "alien terrorists," but has not provided evidence to back up its assertions.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there were 261 people deported in total, including 137 who were removed under the Alien Enemies Act and more than 100 others who were removed via standard immigration proceedings. There were also 23 Salvadoran members of the MS-13 gang, she said.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington, Jack Queen in New York and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Sarah Lynch, Grtam Slattery and Susan Heavey; Writing by Joseph Ax and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Ross Colvin, Noeleen Walder and Nia Williams)