U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Tuesday gave attorneys for Venezuelan deportees flown to El Salvador earlier this month until March 31 to respond to the Trump administration's invocation of a "state secrets privilege" while refusing to give further information on its order.
The order, reported by Politico's Kyle Cheney, comes as the judge expressed doubts about whether the privilege applies to the administration and its refusal to provide further details.
The administration deported the Venezuelan migrants under the use of the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law. It allows noncitizens to be deported without going before an immigration or federal court judge, based on whether they can be considered as invaders. Trump has issued a proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.
Meanwhile, the government has refused to give Boasberg further information after he ordered the flights halted on March 15, claiming that the matter falls under "state secrets."
Boasberg is weighing whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around and imposed a 14-day halt on the deportations of people alleged to be gang members.
He is seeking details about when the planes landed in El Salvador and whom they carried, which the administration has rejected, saying that sharing the details will hinder "diplomatic and national security concerns."
Attorneys representing the Venezuelan government have filed legal action in El Salvador to release the 238 Venezuelans, who are now in a maximum-security prison since being deported.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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