Ruling against Trump administration, judge says deported migrants entitled to due process
A federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s motion to lift a temporary restraining order that blocks the federal government from using a wartime law to fast-track the deportation of a group of Venezuelan migrants accused of being violent Tren de Aragua gang members.
The decision, issued Monday by Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, set aside the issue of whether the judiciary can halt a president’s directive to remove undocumented migrants under the Alien Enemies Act. Instead, Boasberg focused on the need for the government to prove that the people slated to be deported — in this case to a prison in El Salvador — are in fact “alien enemies” prior to booting them from the country.
“Before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all,” wrote Boasberg. “Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge.”
Boasberg’s check on the Trump administration is a consequential flashpoint in what’s anticipated to be a protracted legal struggle over presidential power and the extent to which it can singularly revamp U.S. immigration policy.
In this case, the Trump administration deported hundreds of alleged gang members to an El Salvador prison without any opportunity for court hearings, arguing that they were part of a force invading the United States on behalf of the ruling regime in Venezuela. Boasberg’s ruling temporarily prevents them from doing it again.
‘Nazis got better treatment’
During an appeals court hearing on Boasberg’s order later Monday, Judge Patricia Millett said that even if the Alien Enemies Act is constitutional, the government’s implementation of it in the case of hundreds of Venezuelans transferred to El Salvador may not be, because they were given no opportunity to contest their designation.
“Nazis got better treatment,” Millett said during her aggressive probing of the government’s case for relief from Boasberg’s order.
Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign, who disputed the Nazi analogy, maintained that the 1798 law — invoked only three times in history — did not require the government to provide migrants with prior notice about their planned deportations or time to challenge them.
“It just feels like there was no time,” Millett said. “That’s the issue here is whether there was a process.”
Judge Justin Walker, the Trump appointee on the 3-judge appeals court panel, took aim at the American Civil Liberties Union choice of legal venue. Since the accused gang members were being held in Raymondsville, Texas before being deported, Walker suggested the ACLU should have filed its case there rather than in Washington.
“You can do all that, you’ve just got to do it in the right court. And the right court was in Texas,” Walker said, paraphrasing the government’s argument.
But while Ensign approximated nearly 300 Venezuelans involved in this deportation proceeding, he did not provide the judges with precise locations of where they were being held, making it more difficult to determine proper jurisdiction.
Boasberg’s order defied?
Trump exercised the Alien Enemies Act hours after issuing an executive order on March 14 declaring that the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela had sent Tren de Aragua gang members into the United States in an “invasion.”
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Boasberg issued the temporary restraining order in question on March 15 in response to a lawsuit by five Venezuelans who said they were wrongly accused of being gang members and on the verge of being deported. The order, set for 14 days, prohibits the Trump administration from removing any undocumented migrants solely on the basis of the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg stressed the narrowness of his ruling, underlining that the government could still remove migrants using the Immigration and Nationality Act, the primary law governing U.S. citizenship.
The order included a demand that the Trump administration turn around planes ferrying 261 detainees to an El Salvador prison. But the planes continued on, raising the question of whether the Trump administration openly defied Boasberg’s directive.
Boasberg wrote in his ruling that the government’s “decision to hastily dispatch flights as legal proceedings were ongoing” was “a move that implied a desire to circumvent judicial review.” He also said the plaintiffs had proven they had good reason to fear torture in El Salvador.
Further, he noted that his ruling didn’t require the government to release any detainees or prevent the government from apprehending accused members of Tren de Aragua — 394 of whom have been arrested since Trump took office, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
On Monday, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt told the appeals court panel he planned to show that “many, if not most removed” did not have a connection to Tren de Aragua, a significant claim that could bolster the plantiffs’ broader case against Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
RELATED: Administration: ‘Many’ Venezuelans sent to El Salvador prison had no U.S. criminal record
Attorneys for the Department of Justice have have said Boasberg had no authority to issue his injunction. On Sunday, in an interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Boasberg is “an out-of-control judge” who is “trying to control our entire foreign policy.” Bondi predicted the case would end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would hold hearings examining Boasberg’s rulings. That follows the president’s call for Boasberg to be impeached, which would require a simple majority in the House but two-thirds support in the U.S. Senate — a likely unattainable benchmark for those who want his ouster.
“It really starts to look like Judge Boasberg is operating purely political against the president,” said Jordan on Fox News Monday.
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 10:58 AM.
