The Trump administration took their open flouting of an order to halt recent deportations a step further on Monday, with the Department of Justice arguing that the federal judge's ruling from the bench was "not enforceable."
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled over the weekend that the Trump administration should halt deportations of Venezuelan nationals immediately, taking particular care to tell attorneys that flights that were underway should be redirected and returned to the United States. Boasberg's written order, released later, did not include the demand that deportees in transit be returned.
In a filing on Monday, DOJ attorneys argued that oral orders were not enforceable "as an injunction."
"The narrower written order may well represent a more considered judgment by the court about the proper exercise of its powers," they wrote. "In accord with this well-established law, the written minute order governed."
Trump administration officials have spent the days since Boasberg's ruling mocking the judge's order. White House Communications Director shared El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's jab at the judge, saying the ruling came "too late" on social media. Trump Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Boasberg's temporary restraining order unconstitutional while speaking with CNN on Monday.
"District court judges do not have the authority, as a general matter, to enjoin the functioning of the executive branch," Miller said. "This judge violated the law. He violated the Constitution."
Trump himself shared a video of the deportees having their heads shaved upon landing in El Salvador. He called the men in the video, who were suspected by the administration of being members of the gang Tren de Aragua, "monsters" in a post to Truth Social.
"Thank you to El Salvador and, in particular, President Bukele, for your understanding of this horrible situation, which was allowed to happen to the United States because of incompetent Democrat leadership," he wrote.
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