Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the call in March to transfer detainees to Salvadoran custody after a judge ordered their planes to turn around, the Justice Department disclosed Tuesday.
The big picture: A resurrected contempt inquiry into whether Noem and others defied a judge's order will test the limits of President Trump's power to fast-track deportations as he pleases.
- The Trump team has defended its decision to proceed with the deportations, saying two planeloads of people had already departed and were outside U.S. territory when Judge James Boasberg gave his oral directive.
- Amid a wider battle between MAGA world and the federal judiciary, Boasberg has emerged as a prominent target of the administration's ire.
Driving the news: Noem directed the transfer of the detainees to El Salvador after receiving legal advice, the DOJ said in a Tuesday filing in the case over deportations conducted under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.
- The DOJ argued that decision was "lawful" and "consistent with a reasonable interpretation" of Boasberg's order.
- Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and then-Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, two of Trump's former attorneys, provided the legal advice through DHS acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara, the filing said.
Catch up quick: Boasberg resumed his inquiry last week after an appeals court opened the door, multiple outlets reported.
- In April, the judge found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt for displaying a "willful disregard" of his order by completing the transfer to El Salvador's notorious CECOT mega-prison.
- The deportees were returned to Venezuela this summer in a prisoner swap. But lawyers advocating on their behalf say they're "still recovering from the serious harm, including trauma, they experienced at CECOT."
The other side: But the DOJ has remained adamant the administration did not defy Boasberg's order, arguing in their Tuesday filing that Boasberg's oral directive to return the deportees to the U.S. was not a binding injunction.
- "[T]hose people need to be returned to the United States," Boasberg said from the bench in March. "However that's accomplished, whether turning around a plane or not embarking anyone on the plane or those people covered by this on the plane, I leave to you."
Go deeper: Report: Most migrants sent to mega-prison have no apparent criminal record
