A federal judge said on March 20 that the Trump administration’s response to his request for more information on the timing of deportation flights shuttling hundreds of Venezuelan nationals out of the United States was “woefully insufficient” and accused officials of shirking their responsibilities under his order that called for the flights to cease.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is considering whether the administration violated his March 15 order that temporarily blocked the deportation flights amid a pending lawsuit from several anonymous Venezuelan nationals.
On Thursday, he issued a new order, giving Justice Department officials until March 25 to explain why their actions in not bringing the deported illegal immigrants back to the United States did not violate his previous order.
The new ruling further escalates tensions between the Trump administration and the judicial branch. White House officials have accused judges ruling against their actions of being “partisan activists.” President Donald Trump has said he would not defy any court orders and that his administration would appeal the rulings.
Boasberg said the Trump administration had “evaded its responsibilities” in the responses it submitted on Thursday after he asked for more information on the timing of the deportation flights.
The judge said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official submitted a statement to the court outside of public view. The statement reiterated information that the administration had already offered regarding the flights. It also did not say whether the government intended to invoke a legal doctrine about state secrets to avoid giving more details on the deportations, Boasberg added.
The ICE official instead said unnamed cabinet secretaries were discussing whether to invoke the state secrets doctrine and that the 24 hours Boasberg gave the administration to respond were inadequate for a national security issue.
“This is woefully insufficient,” Boasberg wrote in his ruling regarding the response.
The judge had previously appeared skeptical that the state secrets privilege, which shields sensitive national security details from being disclosed in civil litigation, was relevant, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio had posted information about the flights on the social platform X.
While it is normal for material sent to judges to remain out of public view in cases involving sensitive matters, Boasberg added that administration officials had told him some of the information could be disclosed.
Before, the judge had said he was trying to ascertain whether the administration had violated his order, and gave it an opportunity to explain more about the flights and their timing.
Boasberg’s ruling on Thursday, which came as an “order to show cause,” was the first time he has directly ordered administration officials to say whether they had violated his March 15 order temporarily blocking the deportation flights.
