The Trump administration is considering invoking a measure to avoid complying with an order from a federal judge over the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans during the weekend, potentially escalating the ongoing legal showdown.
Concretely, the administration said it could invoke the state secrets privilege to deny information requested by judge James Boasberg regarding the decision to use the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador.
ABC News detailed that the administration seemed to change tune after initially appearing to show willingness to share the information requested.
Department of Justice lawyers argued that the "premise" of Boasberg's orders "is that the Judicial Branch is superior to the Executive Branch, particularly on non-legal matters involving foreign affairs and national security."
"The Government disagrees. The two branches are coequal, and the Court's continued intrusions into the prerogatives of the Executive Branch, especially on a non-legal and factually irrelevant matter, should end," reads a passage of the argument.
The government faces a deadline on Thursday to provide the requested information or invoke the state secrets privilege and explain why it made that decision.
In the meantime, the Trump administration has asked an appeals court for a green light to deport migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, which allows officials to do so without deportees facing a judge first.
The deportations have been dominating headlines as lawyers and relatives of many deportees claim they don't have ties with Venezuelan-born gang Tren de Aragua, as the administration claims. They were flown to El Salvador's infamous Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison able to hold up to 40,000 prisoners and a landmark of President's Nayib Bukele's crusade against crime in the country.
The Trump administration conceded this week that "many" of the deportees were actually hold no criminal record in the U.S., but defended its decision to deport them anyway. A report by the Miami Herald showed that officials conceded the fact in federal court, but doubled down on the decision saying that crossing the border unlawfully is enough reason to deport them.
Robert Cerna, a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, added that the lack of information the government has on the deported Venezuelans "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete file." However, neither Cerna nor the federal government has publicly released any evidence regarding the criminal and personal history of the deportees.
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