A federal judge in Washington threatened on Wednesday to open a high-stakes contempt investigation into whether the Trump administration had violated an order he issued last month directing officials to stop planes of Venezuelan migrants from being sent to El Salvador.
In a 46-page ruling, the judge, James E. Boasberg, said he would begin contempt proceedings against the administration unless the White House did what it had failed to do for more than a month: give scores of Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador under the expansive authority of a wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act a chance to challenge their removal.
“The court does not reach such conclusions lightly or hastily,” wrote Judge Boasberg, who sits as the chief judge in Federal District Court in Washington. “Indeed, it has given defendants ample opportunity to explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory.”
Judge Boasberg’s threat of contempt proceedings, coupled with another federal judge’s move on Tuesday to open a similar inquiry in a separate deportation case, represented a remarkable attempt by jurists to hold the White House accountable for its apparent willingness to flout court orders.
The twin decisions also showed that judges remain willing to push back against the administration’s broader inclination to probe the traditional, but increasingly fragile, balance of power between the executive and judicial branches. Should administration officials slow-walk his efforts, Judge Boasberg warned that he could make a criminal referral to the Justice Department or even appoint an outside prosecutor.
Judge Boasberg’s move came one day after Judge Paula Xinis said at a hearing in Federal District Court in Maryland that she would begin her own accelerated investigation into whether the White House had violated a ruling by the Supreme Court.
