Judge fumes over late-night deportation move signed 'in the dark'

At least 261 migrants were deported Saturday from the U.S. to El Salvador, including more than 100 Venezuelan nationals who were subject to removal "solely on the basis" of the law temporarily blocked by the court.

Boasberg used the first portion of Friday's hearing to press Ensign for details over the government's deportation flights to El Salvador.

Ensign was also pressed at length over what he knew about the deportations during last week's court hearing, when Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt any planned removals of Venezuelan migrants subject to the Alien Enemies Act.

Boasberg also issued a bench ruling Saturday ordering the immediate return of any planes deporting the Venezuelan nationals targeted for deportation under the Alien Enemies Act.

"Can I ask you now how you interpreted that statement when we had a conversation on Saturday?" he asked Ensign. "Did you not understand my statement during that hearing?

"You told me you had no details on the plane flights. Then we held a recess for 38 minutes for you to find details," the judge reminded Ensign. "And then when you came back - and even though the flights were in the air - you represented that you had no details of the flights?" 

"That's correct," Ensign responded, telling the judge no one would give him the information he sought about the deportation flights. "I did not know they were in the air."

Boasberg has ordered Trump administration officials to explain by Tuesday why they failed to comply with his order requiring the deportation flights to return and whether they knowingly defied his ruling. 

Though the judge acknowledged the Trump administration has "wide latitude" to enforce immigration law, he has repeatedly expressed frustration with the government and its failure to answer major questions about the flights.

He reiterated these concerns Friday and raised new concerns about the administration's apparent defiance of federal judges.

"The hypotheticals are frightening," Boasberg told Ensign. "If the courts can't review" the administration's use of the wartime-era deportation law, "then the president could say anyone is invading. If some foreign fisherman comes into U.S. waters, the president could say that's an invasion.

"Even you would say that's alarming."

"That's up to Congress," Ensign responded.

It remains unclear whether the Trump administration will invoke the state secrets privilege in the court battle, which could allow it to withhold certain information for national security purposes.

In a court declaration filed Friday morning, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Boasberg he is aware of Cabinet-level discussions invoking that privilege. The administration could present that argument at an appellate court hearing next week.

Invoking that privilege "is a serious matter that requires careful consideration of national security and foreign relations, and it cannot properly be taken in just 24 hours," Blanche told the court Friday. 

In a Truth Social post, Trump implored the Supreme Court to "STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE."

"If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!" he added.