WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Trump administration officials could face criminal contempt charges for violating a U.S. federal judge’s order halting deportations of Venezuelan migrants under a wartime law, the judge said on Wednesday.
In a written ruling, U.S. 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 March 15 order barring the government from deporting Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg’s ruling is the furthest any judge has gone to chastise President Donald Trump’s administration in an escalating confrontation between the judicial and executive branches.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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 unfavorable court orders, signaling 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 a man the administration has acknowledged was wrongly deported to El Salvador, but said she would not hold the administration in contempt just yet.Â
When Boasberg had issued the March 15 order, two planes of Venezuelans were on their way from the United States to El Salvador and had not returned to the United States. He said there was probable cause to find the government in criminal contempt.
“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions,” Boasberg wrote in his ruling that day. “None of their responses has been satisfactory.”
The Trump administration says it did not violate Boasberg’s order. In court papers, Justice Department lawyers have said the migrants had already been deported by the time the judge ruled because the planes had left U.S. airspace. They also said Boasberg lacked the authority to order the government to bring the migrants back from overseas.
Boasberg said the administration would have the opportunity to “purge” its contempt before he considers potential criminal prosecution. Â
He said the “most obvious” way for the administration to avoid contempt would be to allow migrants deported under the law in violation of his order to challenge their removal in court. The judge said that would not require bringing the migrants back to the United States, adding that the administration could “propose other methods of coming into compliance.”
(Reporting by Luc Cohen, Andrew Goudsward and Tom Hals; Editing by Howard Goller and Noeleen Walder)
By Luc Cohen, Andrew Goudsward and Tom Hals
