(NewsNation) — The Trump administration’s deportation flights to El Salvador remain at the center of a federal government showdown.
District Judge James E. Boasberg has once again set a noon deadline for more information on the flights he tried to block, which transported more than 250 alleged Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members over the weekend.
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The judge wants to know, down to the minute, when the planes took off, when they hit international airspace, when they landed, when deportees were transferred out of U.S. custody and just how many of them were actually deported using the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg is looking to pinpoint if the Trump administration knowingly ignored his orders to halt the flights, which the American Civil Liberties Union argues occurred.
Overnight, President Donald Trump on social media defended the flights: “If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!”
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Trump’s Justice Department pushed back on Boasberg’s information order Tuesday, maintaining “there is no justification to order the provision of additional information” regarding the flights “and that doing so would be inappropriate.”
The DOJ said sharing that information would reveal sensitive national security and foreign relations information.
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Some details did emerge from Tuesday’s request, however. A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official revealed a third flight took off after Boasberg’s written order.
The official said that flight only had deportees with Title 8 final removal orders, not alleged gang members. For that reason, the agency argues the plane didn’t have to turn around.
ICE also said there are at least another 250 people in the Venezuelan gang who could end up in their custody — and if they do, they too could be deported.
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The back-and-forth prompted Trump to call for Boasberg’s impeachment. The DOJ has also asked the D.C. Federal Appeals Court to remove Boasberg from the case.
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement Tuesday in response to Trump’s directive.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said.
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It would take a two-thirds vote from the Senate to remove a judge — which the Republican Party does not have.
Boasberg, confirmed in 2011 with a 96-0 vote, has resolved secret grand jury disputes that arose during the special counsel investigations into Trump, overseen improvements after the Trump-Russia investigation into how the DOJ conducts national security surveillance and handled his share of sentencings for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
