A US federal judge has questioned why the Trump administration failed to obey his order halting the deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
White House officials argued in a court filing that they did not defy the ruling. The argued in part that because Boasberg’s order was made orally rather than in written form, it was not enforceable - and that the planes had already left the US by the time it was issued.

During a hearing on Monday, Boasberg said he clearly ordered the government to turn the planes around. “You’re saying that you felt you could disregard it because it wasn’t in a written order?” he asked Department of Justice lawyers.

After lawyers told the judge that planes with deportees already had taken off, he reportedly gave a verbal order for the flights to turn back “immediately”, although that directive was not included in a written ruling published shortly thereafter. Nonetheless, a timeline of events reported by US media suggests the Trump administration had the opportunity to stop at least some of the deportations.

Under the US system of checks and balances, government agencies are expected to comply with a federal judge’s ruling.

El Salvador has agreed to accept the deportees from the US. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, appeared to mock the judge’s ruling. “Oopsie… Too late,” he posted on social media, along with a picture of a headline announcing the ruling and a ‘crying with laughter’ emoji. His team also published footage of some of the detainees inside one of its mega-jails.
According to the White House, El Salvador’s government received $6m (£4.62m) to take the detainees, which Leavitt said “is pennies on the dollar” compared to the cost of holding inmates in US prisons.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which brought the lawsuit leading to the judge’s order, questioned Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, a sweeping wartime authority that allows fast-track deportations. “I think we’re in very dangerous territory here in the United States with the invocation of this law,” said the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt.
The Alien Enemies Act only allowed deportations when the US was in a declared war with that foreign government, or was being invaded, Mr Gelernt said. “A gang is not invading,” he told BBC News. Making matters worse was the fact “the administration is saying nobody can review what they’re doing”, Mr Gelernt added.