Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem directed that hundreds of Venezuelan men who were removed from the U.S. in March be transferred to El Salvador, despite a federal judge ordering deportation planes turned around, according to a new court filing from Trump administration lawyers.
In the filing late Tuesday, the Department of Justice said that DOJ and DHS officials conveyed their legal advice to Noem after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg gave first an oral directive and then a written order that sought to block the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
“After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador,” DOJ said on Tuesday.
Minister of Justice and Public Security Hector Villatoro, (R), accompanies Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, second from (R), during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) on March 26, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)
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That legal advice was given to Joseph Mazzara, the acting general counsel of DHS, by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and former top DOJ official Emil Bove, who then passed it on to Noem, according to the filing.
The filing comes after Judge Boasberg said last week that he is moving forward with his contempt inquiry into whether Trump administration officials violated his March court order.
In March, The Trump administration invoked the AEA — an 18th-century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
In a March 15 court hearing, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes carrying the detainees be turned around, but Justice Department attorneys said his oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and the deportations proceeded as planned.
More than 250 suspected gang members arrive in El Salvador by plane, including 238 members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and 23 members of the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the US in San Salvador, El Salvador on March 16, 2025. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele confirmed they will be sent to the country’s infamous mega-prison at CECOP facility prison. San Salvador forces took heavy security measures.
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On Tuesday, DOJ said the legal advice given to Noem “did not violate the court’s order, much less constitute contempt.”
“Specifically, the Court’s written order did not purport to require the return of detainees who had already been removed, and the earlier oral directive was not a binding injunction, especially after the written order,” DOJ said
Boasberg’s earlier finding that the Trump administration likely acted in contempt was halted for months after an appeals court issued an emergency stay. While a federal appeals court on Friday declined to reinstate Boasberg’s original order, the ruling allows him to move forward with his fact-finding inquiry.