Washington DC, US
Reuters
Trump administration officials could face criminal contempt charges for violating a US federal judge’s order halting deportations of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang who had no chance to challenge their removals, the judge said on Wednesday.
In a written ruling, US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington found “probable cause” to hold officials in criminal contempt of court, saying the administration demonstrated “willful disregard” for his 15th March order barring the government from deporting alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
US President Donald Trump arrives for a presentation of the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the US Navy Midshipmen football team of the United States Naval Academy, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on 15th April, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein
Many of the migrants’ lawyers and family members say those deported are not gang members and were never given a chance to contest the US Government’s assertion that they were.
Wednesday’s ruling is the closest any court has come to suggesting punishing the administration since President Donald Trump returned to the White House on 20th January, and escalates the confrontation between the judicial and executive branches.
Boasberg said the administration could still avoid being held in contempt by taking steps to comply with his order – namely, by allowing the migrants to challenge their removals in court. He gave the administration until 23rd April to outline what steps it would take, or to identify the officials who decided to disregard his order so they could potentially be prosecuted.
The judge noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had retweeted an X post in which El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shared a link to a news story about Boasberg’s order blocking deportations and said, “Oopsie…Too late.”
“Boasts by Defendants intimated that they had defied the Court’s Order deliberately and gleefully,” the judge wrote.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on X the administration would seek immediate appellate relief.
A Justice Department spokesperson said, “His [Boasberg’s] underhanded attempt to maintain power over this case is a judicial power grab that the Department of Justice will fight by all means necessary.”
EL SALVADOR BLOCKS US SENATOR FROM VISITING WRONGLY DEPORTED SALVADORAN MAN
Democratic US Senator Chris Van Hollen said on Wednesday authorities in El Salvador had denied him access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man mistakenly deported and being held in a notorious prison in the country.
Van Hollen arrived in the Central American nation on Wednesday morning saying he would seek to meet with senior Salvadoran officials to secure Abrego Garcia’s release.
But Van Hollen told reporters El Salvador’s Vice President Felix Ulloa had told the senator he could not authorise a visit or a call with Abrego Garcia.
US Senator Chris Van Hollen (a Democrat from Maryland) leads a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, US, on 19th November, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz/File photo
Van Hollen, who is a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Ulloa had also told him El Salvador was not releasing Abrego Garcia because the United States was paying to keep him incarcerated.
“Why should the government of the United States pay the government of El Salvador to lock up a man who was illegally abducted from the United States and committed no crime?” Van Hollen said.
The government of El Salvador did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Van Hollen’s visit.
After Washington acknowledged Abrego Garcia had been deported due to an “administrative error”, the US Supreme Court upheld an order by Judge Paula Xinis directing the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
In a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said he had no plans to return Abrego Garcia. Earlier on Monday, the US Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing that it “does not have authority to forcibly” bring Abrego Garcia back.
On Tuesday, Xinis said she would not immediately hold the government in contempt of court, but said there was no evidence the Trump administration had tried to retrieve Abrego Garcia and said she would not tolerate “gamesmanship or grandstanding”.
Along with Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people, mostly Venezuelans, whom it says are gang members, to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 without presenting evidence and without a trial.
Neither government has released the names of the men incarcerated, and the men have not had access to lawyers or any contact with the outside world since arriving at the prison, lawyers have said.
In March, after a judge said flights carrying migrants prosecuted under the Alien Enemies Act should return to the United States, Bukele wrote on X that it was too late, alongside images showing men being rushed off a plane in the dark.
Abrego Garcia, 29, left El Salvador at age 16 to escape gang-related violence, his lawyers have said. He was granted a protective order in 2019 to continue living in the United States. He has never been charged with or convicted of any crime, according to Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, who have denied the Justice Department’s allegation that he is a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
During his San Salvador press conference, Van Hollen stressed that neither the Salvadoran government nor the Trump administration have presented any evidence that Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was to meet on Wednesday with El Salvador’s minister of national defence, Rene Merino, at the Pentagon.
– NELSON RENTERIA in San Salvador, El Salvador; and DIEGO ORE in Mexico City, Mexico; additional reporting by IDREES ALI in Washington DC, US/Reuters
“Strong rebuke”
The Trump administration faces more than 150 legal challenges to policies it has enacted during its first three months. Democrats and some legal analysts have argued officials in some cases are dragging their feet in complying with unfavourable court orders, signalling a potential willingness to disobey an independent, co-equal branch of government.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Maryland said she would ramp up an inquiry into whether the administration violated an order to secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man the administration has acknowledged was wrongly deported to El Salvador, but said she would not hold the administration in contempt just yet.
Boasberg’s order goes further. He wrote that if the administration does not purge its contempt, he could require officials to submit sworn declarations or face questioning under oath. The judge said he could order that a government prosecutor take up the case, or potentially appoint another lawyer to act as a prosecutor if the government refuses.
“It’s a very strong rebuke to the administration,” said Professor Jonathan Hafetz at the Seton Hall University School of Law.
Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment over his blocking of the deportations. That prompted a rare rebuke from US Chief Justice John Roberts, who said appeals, not impeachments, were the proper response to disagreements with court orders.
The judiciary is not the only US institution to come under pressure. The Trump administration has targeted others that have long cherished their independence from partisan politics, such as universities and law firms.
Salvadoran prison guards escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang recently deported by the US Government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on 12th April, 2025. PICTURE: Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via Reuters/File photo
“Oopsie”
The case stems from Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. It is best known for its use to intern and deport people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War II. Some were US citizens.
Lawyers for the migrants in El Salvador have told Reuters they have not been able to visit, speak to or learn about the whereabouts and conditions of their clients.
“Today’s decision affirms what we have long known: the government’s conduct in this case is unlawful and a threat to people and our Constitution,” said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, an advocacy group for migrants in the case.
It was unclear whether the threat of contempt would compel the administration to comply with Boasberg’s order. In general, the threat has been enough to get government officials to comply. Government officials are rarely found in contempt and threatened with jail time.
The president may pardon people convicted of criminal contempt, says the US Congressional Research Service, an independent entity that provides policy analysis to lawmakers.
In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump pardoned former Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio less than a month after he was convicted of criminal contempt in a case involving racial profiling.
