A federal judge ordered officials to provide more information about deportation flights carrying Venezuelans to El Salvador.
U.S. officials said in sworn statements on March 18 that they did not violate a federal judge’s order on deportation flights, in part because the flight that left after the order was released carried Venezuelans who were being deported for other reasons.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on March 15 ordered the Trump administration not to remove illegal immigrants and other noncitizens in U.S. custody who would be subject to President Donald Trump’s proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act.
The president’s proclamation that day stated that the Tren de Aragua gang has been at war with the United States and ordered their “immediate apprehension, detention, and removal.”
Boasberg’s order concerned “members of such class” who were “not otherwise subject to removal.”
After lawyers representing some of the Venezuelans raised concerns over deportation flights that may have departed after the judge’s order, the judge held a hearing to seek clarity on the timing of the flights. After the hearing, he ordered the government to provide, under oath, information showing that no people were removed solely pursuant to Trump’s declaration following his initial order.
Robert Cerna, an acting field office director for the Enforcement and Removal Operations office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in a sworn declaration on Tuesday that the two planes carrying Venezuelans left for El Salvador and exited U.S. airspace before Boasberg’s order was released.
The third flight, he said, departed after the order came in, but all of the passengers had removal orders from immigration judges and none were removed “solely on the basis of the Proclamation at issue.”
Cerna also said that ICE did not act on the proclamation until after it was posted by the White House online on March 15, even though it appeared to have been signed on March 14.
Boasberg had sought more information about when the proclamation was signed, when it was made public, and when it took effect.
He also asked the government to estimate how many people subject to the proclamation are still within the United States.
