Trump admin seeks emergency relief of Boasberg contempt threat

The Trump administration on Wednesday asked a federal appeals court to review a lower court order that threatened to hold officials in contempt over March 15 deportation flights – the latest flashpoint in a wave of immigration disputes playing out in federal courts nationwide.

The emergency request came hours after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said he found probable cause that administration officials had violated court directives to return those flights.

In his ruling, Boasberg threatened criminal contempt charges and directed the administration to submit additional declarations by April 23 explaining why such proceedings should not move forward.

Boasberg said that if officials fail to submit the declarations, the court will consider holding further hearings and potentially refer the matter for prosecution.

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The Trump administration filed its appeal with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday night.

The Trump administration’s brief appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court does not include any new details, as the facts of the case have already been heard by the district and appellate court. 

The appellate court last month ruled 2-1 to uphold Boasberg’s temporary restraining order.

The Supreme Court, however, ruled 5-4 last month that the Trump administration could resume its deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, so long as individuals subject to removal under the law were given due process protections, and the opportunity to pursue habeas relief – or the ability to have their case heard by a U.S. court prior to their removal.

Boasberg said Wednesday that the court found that the Trump administration had demonstrated a “willful disregard” for his March 15 emergency order, which temporarily halted all deportation flights to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 statute providing for such deportations during “a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion” by a foreign nation.

“The Court ultimately determines that the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order, sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt,” Boasberg said Wednesday.

Boasberg said he will give government officials the opportunity to propose “other methods” of coming into compliance, which he will evaluate.

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Boasberg had scolded the Trump administration, including Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign, for failing to comply with repeated requests for information from the court about the individuals deported on the flights – and who in the administration knew about the restraining order handed down, and when. 

The lack of information provided had sparked frustration from Boasberg, who described their compliance last month in a blistering order as “woefully insufficient.”

The Trump administration, for its part, had argued in an earlier emergency appeal that Boasberg’s actions amounted to a “massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens,” whom they alleged “pose threats to the American people.”

“If you really believed everything you did that day was legal and would survive a court challenge, you would not have operated the way that you did,” Boasberg told Ensign earlier this month.