A federal judge has ruled that the White House must give migrants sent to an El Salvador prison a chance to challenge their removals.
Judge James Boasberg did not provide specific details on what actions the Trump administration must take but has given them a deadline of one week to explain their plans for compliance.
The individuals who were placed in prison under an outdated wartime law have been unable to formally dispute their removal or the accusations labeling them as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Boasberg ordered the administration to work toward giving them a way to file those challenges.
According to the judge, there is a substantial amount of evidence suggesting that many of the detainees in El Salvador have no ties to the gang. As a result, they are detained in a foreign facility based on weak and sometimes unfounded allegations.
The administration is now expected to use the next seven days to come up with a manner in which the ‘at least 137’ people can make those claims, even while they’re formally in the custody of El Salvador.
His decision has enraged the White House, with spokesperson Abigail Jackson telling DailyMail.com Boasberg is overstepping.
‘Judge Boasberg has no authority to intervene with immigration or national security – authority that rests squarely with President Trump and the Executive Branch.’
A federal judge Donald Trump has called a Barack Obama-appointed radical ruled Wednesday that the White House must give migrants sent to an El Salvador prison a chance to challenge their removals
U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg said that people who were sent to the prison in March under an 18th-century wartime law haven´t been able to formally contest the removals or allegations that they are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua
Boasberg has quickly become an enemy of the president after ruling in mid-March to block Trump’s deportation flights of illegal immigrant gang members.
Trump has called Boasberg a ‘radical’ appointee of Barack Obama and accused him of trying to ‘usurp the power of the presidency’ while Republicans have argued for the judge to be impeached – leading Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to defend Boasberg.
‘His current and previous attempts to prevent President Trump from deporting criminal illegal aliens poses a direct threat to the safety of the American people. Fortunately for the American people, Judge Boasberg does not have the last word,’ Jackson added.
Skye Perryman, the President and CEO of Democracy Forward representing the plaintiffs, celebrated the decision.
‘Today’s ruling affirms what every American knows: in the United States, people are entitled to due process and no one should be removed from the country without it,’ Perryman told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘What has long separated the United States from autocratic regimes is the recognition of this process. We will continue to oppose this administration’s attempts to re-write the protections afforded under the Constitution.’
It’s the latest milestone in the months-long legal saga over the fate of deportees imprisoned at El Salvador´s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center.
After Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in March and prepared to fly planeloads of accused gang members to El Salvador and out of the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, Boasberg ordered them to turn the planes around.
This demand was ignored. Boasberg has found probably cause that the administration committed contempt of court after the flight landed.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted a taunting message on social media – reposted by some of Trump’s top aides – that read ‘Oopsie, too late.’
Trump has criticized Boasberg’s rulings in the past
Prisoners look out of their cell as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador
The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that anyone targeted under the AEA has the right to appeal to a judge to contest their designation as an enemy of the state.
Boasberg said he was simply applying that principle to those who’d been removed.
The judge said the administration ‘plainly deprived’ the immigrants of a chance to challenge their removals before they were put on flights.
Therefore, he says the government must handle the migrants cases now as if they ‘would have been if the Government had not provided constitutionally inadequate process.’
In a remarkable passage, Boasberg wrote that he accepted the administration’s declaration, filed under seal, providing details of the government’s deal with El Salvador to house deportees and how that means the Venezuelans are technically under the legal control of El Salvador and not the United States.
But, he said, believing those representations was ‘rendered more difficult given the Government´s troubling conduct throughout this case.’
He noted the Supreme Court had to act again in the saga, to halt an apparent effort to get around that requirement with a late-night flight from Texas in April.
Boasberg also noted parallels with another case where the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported a Maryland man to El Salvador and has been ordered by a judge, appellate judges and the U.S. Supreme Court to ‘facilitate’ his return.
Trump has been criticizing Boasberg (pictured right) for almost the entirety of his presidency, even calling for his impeachment
In his previous attacks on Boasberg, Trump called the judge a ‘publicity hound’ after the judge halted his massive deportation of migrants with a temporary restraining order.
‘Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the Power of the Presidency,’ he warned.
‘The danger is unparalleled!’
Boasberg had issued the temporary order after the administration flew more than 200 alleged gangsters to El Salvador.
Trump mocked Boasberg as ‘a local, unknown Judge’ and added that he’s a ‘grandstander, looking for publicity.’
In a separate post, he demanded that nationwide injunctions be stopped permanently and called on the Supreme Court to help.
‘Unlawful Nationwide Injunctions by Radical Left Judges could very well lead to the destruction of our Country!’ he wrote.
‘If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!’
Roberts, however, issued a stunning rebuke after Trump called for the impeachment of Boasberg.
But Trump insisted that liberal judges are trying to assume the powers of the presidency ‘without getting 80 million votes,’ saying that the ‘danger’ they could cause is ‘unparalleled.’
‘A President has to be allowed to act quickly and decisively about such matters as returning murderers, drug lords, rapists, and other such type criminals back to their Homeland, or to other locations that will allow our Country to be SAFE,’ he added.
The ruling that set off the fury came when Boasberg issued the temporary ruling that blocked the deportations of more than 200 people after the administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Boasberg’s ruling came after a fiery hearing where he demanded the government declare when it thinks his own orders on the deportations took effect – after the administration said the deportation flights were underway and over international waters when it learned of the order.
