Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a court filing Friday that Cabinet secretaries are considering invoking the state secrets privilege to avoid answering a judge’s questions about the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
"I understand that Cabinet Secretaries are currently actively considering whether to invoke the state secrets privilege over the other facts requested by the Court's order,” Robert Cerna, an acting field director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE wrote in a declaration filed by Blanche. “Doing so is a serious matter that requires careful consideration of national security and foreign relations, and it cannot properly be undertaken in just 24 hours."
Judge James Boasberg had ordered the Trump administration to provide more details about the fight or assert state secrets. A hearing on the issue was scheduled for Friday afternoon.
The state secrets privilege, established through a series of Supreme Court decisions, allows the government to protect sensitive national security information from being disclosed in civil litigation. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit after Trump's proclamation of the Alien Enemies Act and the deportation flights began.
"The Government again evaded its obligations," Boasberg wrote in a filing Thursday, noting the filing from the ICE official included the same information about the flights. "This is woefully insufficient. To begin, the Government cannot proffer a regional ICE official to attest to Cabinet-level discussions of the state-secrets privilege."
Last week, Boasberg ordered the government turn around or halt flights carrying Venezuelan migrants removed under the Alien Enemies Act. The DOJ argued it complied with Boasberg's written order, suggesting they did not have to comply with the oral order, according to The Hill. The DOJ also has argued the matter was irrelevant because the flights were already out of U.S. territory by the time Boasberg's order landed on the docket.
The White House said Boasberg has no oversight over national security matters.
"The President is well within his Article II power and his authority under the Alien Enemies Act to make these decisions," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. "And we think it's egregious that a single district judge is trying to tell the president of the United States who he can and cannot deport from our soil, especially when it comes to designated foreign terrorists."
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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