A federal judge berated attorneys for the Department of Justice on Monday after they claimed an oral order he gave over the weekend was “not enforceable.”
“These weren’t statements. This was an order,” U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg exclaimed during the hearing.
The White House has struggled to defend its actions after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on Friday to remove suspected members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without a hearing. On Saturday, Boasberg ordered the deportations to halt—and to turn around any planes already in the air, an order the administration promptly ignored.
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“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg said. A corresponding written order was filed less than an hour later at 7:26 p.m.
Two planes carrying 261 migrants landed in El Salvador on Sunday nonetheless. Boasberg asked the administration to explain its actions in a hearing Monday afternoon.
“An oral directive is not enforceable as an injunction,” a document from the DOJ filed Monday reads.
“That’s a heckuva stretch,” Boasberg said at the hearing on Monday.
At the hearing, the DOJ refused to answer whether the White House had defied the order, citing national security concerns.
Boasberg rebuked the department’s stonewalling and said he wanted more information by noon Tuesday.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed earlier Monday that the planes had left the U.S. before Boasberg submitted his written order.
“All of the planes subject to the written order of this judge departed U.S. soil, U.S territory before the judge’s written order,” Leavitt said. “There’s actually questions of whether a verbal order carries the same weight as a legal order, as a written order.”
Boasberg was nominated by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama to federal roles during the span of his career, and was formerly appointed the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court.
The day after his decision, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele taunted the judge’s temporary restraining order, writing: “Oopsie...Too late,” with a laughing face emoji.
Bukele also uploaded the now viral video of El Salvador officials taking in the deportees, roughly grabbing them, pushing their heads down and shaving their heads.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio later retweeted the post.
Border Czar Tom Homan also seemingly signed off on the administration’s decision to ignore the judge’s order, telling Fox News on Monday: “We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”
White House aide Stephen Miller claimed that “it is, without, doubt the most unlawful order a judge has issued in our lifetimes.”
