Trump officials could face contempt charges, says US judge

US District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday said that he found "probable cause" to hold Donald Trump and his administration in criminal contempt for directly defying his order to cancel the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.

"The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory," wrote Judge Boasberg.

Boasberg said the Trump administration must "purge" itself of contempt or face hearings and potential prosecution.

The White House has said it planned an "immediate" appeal. 

Can Trump use Alien Enemies Act?

Boasberg had ordered the deportation flights to remain grounded, then ordered they return to the US after they departed en route to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison.

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced the plane's arrival with the words, "Oopsie, too late," in a social media post featuring an article about Boasberg's court order.

Trump reacted to Boasberg's initial ruling by calling for his impeachment, as his entire administration decried the judge as having overstepped his boundaries in an attempt to "dictate US foreign policy."

The conflict reflects a pattern of scuffles the Trump administration has embarked on with the justice system.

In this instance, Boasberg has ruled that Trump has no authority to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to weigh in on the matter — where they feel confident that the current Trump-friendly conservative majority will rule in his favor.

What is being done about wrongly deported man?

The Trump administration has used thin technical arguments to justify its actions at the time and continues to claim it broke no laws in carrying out the flight despite the court's clear order instructing otherwise.

Since then, the fate of one of those deported has made headlines, that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old El Salvador man, who is a legal resident of Maryland.

Though he originally entered the country illegally in 2011 when he was 16 and had one prior immigration-related arrest in 2019, Abrego Garcia had been granted temporary protected status to live in the US.

He was stopped and arrested in Baltimore on March 12, while driving with his son. His wife was called and told to retrieve their son within 10 minutes or he would be given to child protective services.

Abrego Garcia was then deported on what the government later admitted was an "administrative error."

First the Trump administration said Abrego Garcia was a member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, then later the pan-American gang MS13. It has failed to provide any supporting evidence.

Trump smiles as Bukele shuts down hope of return for Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has no criminal arrests in the US, nor anywhere else according to the federal judge overseeing his particular case. The Department of Justice argues that he is a criminal by virtue of the fact that he entered the country illegally.

The US Supreme Court has said the administration must facilitate Abrego Garcia's return but the administration has played coy, saying its hands are tied because he is in El Salvador.

The idea that a potentially innocent individual who came to the US to escape gang violence at home might be deported without any due process and locked up indefinitely in CECOT — the largest prison in Latin American, brimming with tens of thousands of gang members — led reporters to ask about Abrego Garcia's case when Bukele visited the White House earlier in the week.

Trump grinned widely as Bukele said the case was closed as far as he was concerned, quipping that it would be inconceivable for him to think of "smuggling a terrorist back into the United States."

Edited by: Wesley Rahn