Jeb Boasberg instructs Trump administration to explain how refusal to return flights did not violate court orderA federal judge instructed the Trump administration on Thursday to explain why its failure to turn around flights carrying deportees to El Salvador did not violate his court order in a growing showdown between the judicial and executive branches.James Boasberg, the US district judge, demanded answers after flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants alleged by the Trump administration to be gang members landed in El Salvador after the judge temporarily blocked deportations conducted under an 18th-century wartime law. Boasberg had directed the administration to return planes that were already in the air to the US when he ordered the halt. Continue reading...
Judge James Boasberg demanded the Trump administration explain why deportation flights to El Salvador, carrying Venezuelan immigrants alleged to be gang members, continued after he temporarily blocked deportations under an 18th-century wartime law. The administration resisted providing details, prompting the judge to accuse them of evading obligations. The Justice Department argued the verbal directions did not apply to flights already departed and that only the written order needed to be followed.