U.S. District Judge James Boasberg pressed Justice Department officials Thursday on the status and location of more than 250 U.S. migrants deported from CECOT to Venezuela, in an attempt to weigh what, if any, opportunities the court has to order their return.
Boasberg has been at the center of the sweeping immigration case since March 15, when he issued an emergency order blocking the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law, to deport certain migrants to El Salvador. Despite the order, hundreds of migrants were deported to the Salvadorian prison, CECOT, in March, where they remained until last week, when they were sent from the prison in El Salvador to Venezuela, as part of a prisoner exchange with the U.S.
Boasberg used Thursday’s hearing to primarily focus on the status of the 252 Venezuelan migrants now in the custody of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government. He pressed ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt, who is representing the class of CECOT migrants, about whether they had been in contact with the individuals sent from CECOT to Venezuela and their current status.
Gelernt said Thursday that while the migrants appear to be ‘thrilled’ to be out of CECOT custody, which he described in court as a ‘torture chamber,’ he said they have not been able to make contact with the majority of people who were detained for processing upon arrival in Venezuela.
He also cited fresh concerns about their custodial status in the country, noting that ‘many, if not most’ of the people deported from the U.S. to El Salvador in March had been in the U.S. seeking asylum from Venezuela.
The Trump administration has not provided, as of this writing, a list of the migrants sent to CECOT in March, or details of their immigration status in the U.S. prior to removal.
Justice Department lawyer Tiberius Davis told the court earlier Thursday that talks about the prisoner exchange began earlier this year, when Maduro reached out to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to initiate discussions. The conversations abruptly stalled, he said, noting the two countries ‘hate each other,’ and revived with the U.S. as an intermediary.
That, he said, coupled with the fact that the 10 American prisoners released from Venezuela were sent to El Salvador, and then to the U.S., showed that the US ‘does not have constructive custody.’ Boasberg did not press them for specifics.
Boasberg did, however, attempt to gauge the government’s compliance ahead of any future actions or rulings.
Asked Thursday whether the Justice Department would comply with the court’s orders, Davis said they would ‘if it was a lawful order.’ They also said they would likely seek an appeal from a higher court.
Boasberg signaled eagerness to move on further contempt proceedings. He took umbrage at the lack of action from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which had stayed his original motion in April.
He ruled then that the court had found ‘probable cause’ to hold the Trump administration in contempt for failing to return the planes to U.S. soil, in accordance with his emergency order, and said the court had determined that the Trump administration demonstrated a ‘willful disregard’ for his order.
On Thursday, he revisited this, noting that the claims made by former DOJ attorney and whistleblower Erez Reuveni have ‘only strengthened the case for contempt.’
The hearing ultimately ended quickly, with Boasberg ordering the government and lawyers for the migrants to submit a joint status update to the court on Thursday, Aug. 7, and ordered them to continue to do so every two weeks thereafter until the court rules otherwise.
In June, Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to provide all noncitizens deported from the U.S. to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador to be afforded the opportunity to seek habeas relief in court, and challenge their alleged gang status. That was also appealed to the higher court.
Speaking to reporters outside the court on Thursday, ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt characterized the Trump administration’s response during the status hearing as ‘the least’ of what they should be expected to do to grant due process to the class of CECOT plaintiffs now in Venezuela.
‘Given that there was a constitutional violation, it’s remarkable that the United States government will not simply bring the individuals back without a court order,’ Gelernt told Fox News.
‘I’ve been doing this work for more than 30 years,’ he said. ‘It’s hard for me to imagine any prior administration, Democrat or Republican, not agreeing to simply bring individuals back where there was constitutional violation and the individuals have suffered so much and are continuing to be in harm.’
The brief hearing comes as Boasberg found himself at the center of Trump’s ire and attacks on so-called ‘activist’ judges this year, following his March 15 temporary restraining order that sought to block Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport hundreds of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador earlier this year.
Boasberg ordered all planes bound for El Salvador to be ‘immediately’ returned to U.S. soil, which did not happen.
The emergency order touched off a complex legal saga that ultimately spawned dozens of federal court challenges across the country – though the one brought before his court on March 15 was the very first – and later prompted the Supreme Court to rule, on two separate occasions, that the hurried removals had violated migrants’ due process protections under the U.S. Constitution.
Boasberg, as a result, has emerged as the man at the center of the legal fallout.
While the order itself has been in a bit of a holding pattern – since the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed it when they agreed to review the ruling – Thursday’s hearing may well revive the bitterly divisive court fight.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly excoriated Boasberg as an ‘activist judge’ – a term they have employed for judges who have either paused or blocked Trump’s sweeping policy priorities enacted via executive order. Trump himself floated the idea that Boasberg could be impeached earlier this year – prompting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare public warning.
‘Such was the situation into which Frengel Reyes Mota, Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, and scores of other Venezuelan noncitizens say they were plunged on March 15, 2025,’ Boasberg said.
Thursday’s hearing comes amid a flurry of new reports and allegations filed by plaintiffs in the case in an effort to reopen discovery.
