The Department of Justice, in seeking an emergency stay to block U.S. District Judge James Boasberg from holding the Trump administration in contempt for violating his order to halt the deportations of Venezuelan migrants, has accused him of "infringing on core executive prerogatives" with his threats.

In the filing, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, the administration argues that the Supreme Court has already vacated Boasberg's temporary restraining orders on March 15, while requiring that any further challenges to the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act proceed in Texas, where the plaintiffs are in custody. 

"Instead of winding down D.C. proceedings, the district court has pivoted to compelling the Executive Branch to pursue two alternative but equally unconstitutional avenues to address supposed violations of a now-vacated TRO," the filing states. 

"Occasions for constitutional confrontation between the two branches should be avoided whenever possible," the DOJ lawyers further wrote. "The district court’s criminal contempt order instead escalates the constitutional stakes by infringing core executive prerogatives."

On Wednesday, Boasberg, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said the administration had demonstrated "willful disregard" for his order barring the use of the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law, to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. 

In his 46-page ruling, the judge said he will start contempt proceedings against the administration unless the men who were deported are given the chance to challenge their detentions. 

"The court does not reach such conclusions lightly or hastily," Boasberg wrote. "Indeed, it has given defendants ample opportunity to explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory."

He also warned that he could refer the matter for prosecution if the administration does not voluntarily obey his order. 

"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," he wrote.

The DOJ, in Friday's filing, argued that the Alien Enemies Act empowers presidents to detain and remove alien enemies when war is declared or if there is "any invasion or predatory incursion" by a "foreign nation or government."

It also noted that Trump, on March 15, issued a proclamation that invoked the law to detain and remove members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which the State Department has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. 

Boasberg's move came one day after Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland said that she is planning an investigation into whether the White House violated a ruling by the Supreme Court to facilitate the release of Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was sent to the maximum security prison in El Salvador, where the Venezuelan migrants were sent. 

A federal appeals court from the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously refused on Thursday to suspend Xinis' decision to order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they had complied with her instructions, saying it "should be shocking" that the administration claims it can't do anything to free him. 

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