A federal judge has given the US government one more day to provide details about the flights with which it deported more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador on Saturday.
Arguing that the information compromises national security, the Justice Department avoided sharing information about those flights with Judge James Boasberg all week, who on Saturday issued an order blocking Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
This 1798 law authorizes the summary deportation of foreigners in case of war.
Boasberg had asked for the information to be sent to him under seal (so that it would not be accessible to the public) before noon on Wednesday, but the government again considered the request unnecessary and is now considering whether to invoke the state secrets privilege, the application of which excludes the production of evidence that could compromise national security.
The judge ruled to give the Justice Department another 24 hours to consider whether or not to invoke that protection and, if so, to defend it.
Despite Boasberg's order on Saturday, a total of three flights landed in El Salvador and handed over about 200 Venezuelans — who the U.S. government alleges are members of the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua — to Salvadoran authorities, who agreed to arrest them.
The Justice Department has questioned whether the judge has jurisdiction over the administration's foreign and immigration policy, something Donald Trump himself has vehemently asserted in recent days.
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said today that the administration as a whole stands by the president's comments about Boasberg's resignation.
"A democracy in which district judges can individually assume all the powers of the commander in chief is not possible," Miller said.
On Tuesday, Republican Congressman Brandon Gill introduced articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives to begin proceedings against Judge Boasberg.
If that first step is approved by the House, the prospects for a successful impeachment attempt against Boasberg are non-existent, experts say, since impeachment would only be effective if two-thirds of the Senate approved what the lower chamber approved, which would require the support of up to 14 Democratic senators.
One of the lawyers representing five of the Venezuelans deported to El Salvador warned of the "constitutional crisis" that the case poses; However, different members of the executive insist on publicly condemning the judges who block government measures, arguing the separation of powers in the US.
On Saturday, a court tried to block the deportation of immigrants the US government had decided to deport, but US authorities claimed they did not receive the court order in time to stop the ongoing deportation.
Trump invoked the 1798 law, which had not been used since World War II (1939-1945), to expedite deportations of members of the international gang.
The Venezuelan press published statements from relatives of some Venezuelans, denying that they have any links with the Tren de Aragua. They reported that some of them were arrested and deported just for having tattoos on their bodies.
The non-governmental organization Transparency Venezuela, the Tren de Aragua has more than four thousand members and has managed to expand to other countries, such as Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia and Costa Rica.
The group, which emerged in 2013, has weapons of war and a defined hierarchical structure. The Aragua Train originated in the unions of workers building a railway project that was going to connect the center-west of the country and was never completed.
The Aragua Train is accused of crimes related to illegal mining, drug trafficking, human and arms trafficking, scrap metal smuggling, extortion, kidnapping, homicides and robberies.
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