A judge of the United States said Wednesday that he had found a “probable cause” to maintain the contempt of President Donald Trump in a deportation case, increasing bets in the White House confrontation with the justice system.
The White House said he planned an “immediate” appeal to the decision of the James Boasberg district judge, who had ordered the government to stop flights of more than 200 alleged members of Venezuelan gangs to El Salvador.
Boasberg issued a temporary restriction order on March 15 to stop deportations, which were carried out under a dark law of war, the Alien Enemies Law of 1798, which eliminates due due legal process.
In a written opinion, the judge cited evidence that the government had participated in “deliberate or reckless contempt” of its order when proceeded with flights.
“The defendants do not provide a convincing reason to avoid the conclusion that seems obvious … that deliberately breached the written order of this court and, separately, its oral command that explicitly outlined what the fulfillment implied,” he wrote.
The actions of the administration were “enough for the court to conclude that there is a probable cause to find the government in criminal contempt,” Boasberg wrote.
The judge said that the Government would be offered a final opportunity to “purge that contempt” or face more judicial measures.
From his return to the White House in January, Trump has flirted with an open challenge of the Judiciary after the setbacks to his right -wing agenda, with deportation cases that take the center of the stage.
“We planned to look for an immediate appeal relief,” said White House Communications director Steven Cheung, in a statement after the judge’s ruling. “The president is 100 percent committed to ensuring that terrorists and illegal criminal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities throughout the country.”
‘Administrative Error’
When invoking the Alien enemies law, which had only been used previously during the 1812 war, World War I and World War II, Trump said he was pointing to transnational gangs that he had declared foreign terrorist organizations.
That included the Venezuelan group of Aragua, but the lawyers of several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not gang members, they had not committed crimes and were largely attacked on the basis of their tattoos.
The Trump administration is also under fire because of its admission that Kilmar Abrego García, who lived in Maryland’s eastern state and married an American citizen, was deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to an “administrative error.”
A judge ordered Trump to “facilitate” his return, an order confirmed by the Supreme Court, but his government said the court did not have the authority to order to return him.
Trump claimed, without offering evidence, that Abrego García is “member of the MS-13 gang and foreign terrorist from El Salvador”, while press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she was “committed to human trafficking.” The man has never been accused of crimes.
The Republican President has criticized the decisions that slow his policies and power, and attacked the judges who issued them, including Boasberg.
Trump has also moved to resolve the scores with law firms that represented their political enemies in the past or helped take it to court for civil or criminal charges.
