US says homeland security secretary did not violate court order in Venezuelan deportations to El Salvador

ISTANBUL

The US Justice Department argued late Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem did not violate a federal court order when hundreds of Venezuelans were transferred without hearings to a prison in El Salvador, ABC News reported on Wednesday.

In March, more than 200 migrants – said to be linked to Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua network and MS-13, but without hearings or presentations of evidence – were deported from the US to El Salvador’s high-security CECOT mega-prison under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA).

US District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order hours after the planes had taken off, instructing that the deportation flights be turned back.

The filing states that Noem authorized the transfer after receiving legal guidance from senior department officials, despite Boasberg’s instruction to halt deportation flights.

"After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court's order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador," the department said.

In Tuesday’s new filing, the department said the advice given to Noem “did not violate the court’s order, much less constitute contempt,” adding that the judge’s written order did not explicitly require deportees who had already left US soil to be returned.

The deportations drew fierce criticism as the detainees had no access to lawyers or chance to prove the allegations against them were unfounded. This April, US officials admitted that Kilmar Obrega Garcia, a longtime US resident, had been deported due to an “administrative error,” but refused to get him back.

The deportations are seen as part of a pattern in an aggressive US crackdown on immigrants, with people being detained by masked officers, transported to distant locales to deny them access to lawyers, and deported or ordered deported without due process, as the law requires.

With the incident involving Judge Boasberg, advocates argued the Trump administration brazenly violated a judge’s order to halt deportation flights.