Deadline Legal Blog-Trump administration gets a court-imposed New Year's resolution: Comply with due process
Judge James Boasberg gave the government two weeks to come up with a plan for how it will satisfy due process for Venezuelan migrants summarily deported to El Salvador.
https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-cecot-el-salvador-venezuela-boasberg-ruling
When the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan nationals to a notorious Salvadoran prison in March, it did so without first providing them due process to challenge their removals. A judges order this week gives the administration two weeks to submit a proposal for how to provide that process now.
While relatively straightforward as a matter of law, its logistically complicated by the fact that the men are back in Venezuela after initially being sent to El Salvadors Terrorism Confinement Center, also known as CECOT (the subject of the infamously spiked 60 Minutes segment).
Therefore, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg gave the government options for how to proceed.
He didnt demand that the administration facilitate their return, as a judge famously did for Kilmar Abrego Garcia though Boasberg gave that as one option to satisfy the governments obligations. The Obama-appointed judge also said the government could offer Plaintiffs a hearing without returning them to the United States so long as such hearing satisfied the requirements of due process......
Boasbergs latest order in the long-running saga follows the recent thwarting for now of his inquiry into potential criminal contempt for officials who violated his order not to relinquish physical custody of the Venezuelans in El Salvador in March. The judge was set to take testimony in his contempt inquiry earlier this month, before an appellate panel with two Trump appointees in the majority put the proceedings on hold while it further considers the administrations appeal.
The contempt issue is separate from Boasbergs latest order requiring the provision of due process, but given the governments resistance to the judges orders throughout this litigation, the governments compliance remains to be seen.