Federal judge James E. Boasberg considers that there is probable cause to declare in contempt of the Trump government for deporting migrants without prior judicial decision and not subsequently obey the order to return the planes that transported them to El Salvador.
RFI in Spanish | Cristobal Vásquez
The federal judge of the Columbia district, James E. Boasberg, whom Donald Trump wants to dismiss his position, said he found probable cause to declare the Trump government in criminal contempt for violating his orders last month to return airplanes that transported Venezuelans deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador without due process.
Specifically, Boasberg accused government officials of accelerating deportation of persons under the enemy foreign law before they could decide their expulsion in the courts, and after ignoring their order that the planes, which were already in the air, returned to the United States.
In his defense of the actions taken by the Trump administration, the officials of the Department of Justice initially argued that, being a verbal order, it was not executable. Then they said that, as the flights had already left the American airspace, the order no longer applied.
The government now has a week to rectify its actions. Otherwise, hearings will be held to identify the responsible officials.
At least 230 Venezuelans were deported in a first flight by the US to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a place indicated by international organizations of repeated human rights violations to detainees.
The Trump administration claimed that this group, like other Venezuelans sent to that place, are part of the criminal band of Aragua, called in February as a terrorist organization.
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against blockade.” This content is being published taking into account the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
