Judge rebukes Justice Dept., raises due process questions in Alien Enemies Act deportation case

Washington — A federal judge raised questions about the lack of due process for immigrants deported under a wartime authority and rebuked the Justice Department for ignoring his order to turn around two deportation flights last Saturday.

"I made it very clear what you had to do," D.C. Chief District Judge James Boasberg told Drew Ensign, the government attorney leading the case. "Did you not understand my statements in that hearing," he asked Ensign.

The flights carried more than 200 Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador, after President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport them. The law gives the president broad authority to expel foreign nationals during wartime. Boasberg blocked the administration from relying on that authority Saturday and in a hearing the same day, ordered the two flights to be turned around in midair and returned to the U.S. The Trump administration did not follow the order, stating later that the flights were outside of U.S. airspace and therefore outside of the judge's jurisdiction.