(NewsNation) — The legal standoff between the Trump administration and a federal judge could escalate further at a Friday afternoon hearing over the president’s use of a 200-year-old law to deport hundreds of migrants.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., accused officials of evading questions about Saturday’s migrant deportation flights.
The federal judge overseeing this case has described the information provided to him so far as “woefully insufficient” and said the administration has until 10 a.m. ET to deliver a declaration from someone at the cabinet level involved in the decision-making of these flights. That deadline comes ahead of a 2:30 p.m. scheduled hearing.
The judge is looking for information on the planes that landed in El Salvador, including who was on them, how many people were on them, what time they took off, what time they left the U.S. and when the deportees on those planes were transferred out of American custody.
The deportations are part of President Donald Trump’s plan to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law, to deport people it claims are part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The 18th-century law gives the president the ability to quickly deport immigrants from “hostile” nations during war or when a foreign government perpetuates an “invasion.”
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Boasberg said he’s trying to determine if his court orders were “deliberately flouted” as the White House contends the planes were already out of U.S. airspace, which would mean the rulings were not applicable.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “As I’ve said from the podium, and we will continue to say, all of the flights subjected to the written order from the judge already took off before the written order was pushed in the courtroom.”
The Justice Department called the situation “inappropriate judicial overreach.”
They could invoke the state secrets privilege, contending that giving up too much information could jeopardize national security and operations of the federal government. They have not said either way whether they intend to do that or not, though the judge in the case has said he’s skeptical of the risk as some of the information regarding those flights is public.
Decisions be made in a hearing Friday morning.
