The Department of Justice (DOJ) argued Monday that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s verbal order halting the deportation of Venezuelan nationals was “not enforceable.”
Over the weekend, Boasberg ordered a halt to the effort to deport hundreds of immigrants allegedly affiliated with Venezuelan gangs after Trump invoked a controversial 18th century wartime law.
But, the Trump administration ignored the order and loaded up two planes full of the immigrants and deported them to El Salvador anyway.
Boasberg ordered DOJ lawyers to appear in court on Monday to explain why the Trump administration had defied his order.
In a court filing before the hearing, Trump’s DOJ argued that Boasberg’s order didn’t hold weight because it was not written.
“An oral directive is not enforceable as an injunction,” the DOJ wrote adding, “Written orders are crucial because they clarify the bounds of permissible conduct.”
Boasberg pressed DOJ lawyers on this in court.
“You’re telling me, when I made that very clear point, you’re telling me you felt you could disregard it because it wasn’t in the written order?” Boasberg asked Abhishek Kambli, an attorney for the DOJ, according to Newsweek.
“Your honor, our argument would be that this court lost jurisdiction the moment they were out of U.S. airspace,” Kambli responded.
CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, a former deputy assistant attorney general said “I have never seen an argument like that made.”
“If a judge says, you’re guilty, if it’s a bench trial, you’re guilty right then, regardless of whether the judge memorializes it in writing,” Williams added.
Boasberg gave the DOJ until noon Tuesday to provide more information about how many planes took off, where they went, what time they took off, when they landed and how many people were transferred from each plane into the custody of the country in which they landed.
