Judge in deportations case says Trump administration lawyers were 'disrespectful'

By Ted Hesson and Luc Cohen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. judge who temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under a 1798 law said at a hearing on Friday that government lawyers had been "intemperate and disrespectful" in court filings, as he weighs whether officials violated the order. 

At the hearing's outset, Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg told Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign that he could not recall ever having heard government lawyers address him in the way the administration had in this case. 

Boasberg did not specify the language he took issue with. A government filing on Wednesday accused Boasberg of engaging in a "judicial fishing expedition" by seeking more information about deportation flights to help determine if the administration deported people in violation of his order. 

The judge said he often advises his law clerks that their most valuable assets are their reputation and their credibility.

"I would just ask you to make sure that your team maintains that lesson," Boasberg said, at times throwing his hands out to his sides as he spoke.

The escalating dispute between Boasberg and the Republican president's administration has raised concerns among Trump critics and some legal experts about a potentially looming constitutional crisis if the administration defies judicial decisions. 

Boasberg has ordered Justice Department officials to explain by Tuesday why he should not find that they violated the March 15 order by failing to return two planes carrying the deportees that landed in El Salvador - where the migrants are being held - after he issued his ruling on Saturday evening.

Trump has said he would not defy any court orders. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said his administration has the authority to "get bad people out of our country." 

JUDGE CALLS POLICY 'CONCERNING' 

Trump's administration over the weekend invoked the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to justify the expulsions of alleged members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without final removal orders from an immigration judge. 

Boasberg on Saturday issued a 14-day block on any such deportations, finding that the rarely-invoked law - which was used to justify the internment and removal of Japanese, German and Italian immigrants during World War Two - did not provide a basis for Trump's assertion that Tren de Aragua's presence in the United States amounted to an act of war. 

At the hearing, Boasberg said he was considering modifying the block to allow for deporting anyone who admitted they were members of the gang. He did not make a final decision at the hearing.

But the judge called the Trump administration's use of the 1798 law "problematic and concerning" because it was unclear how people could challenge the government's determination that they were members of Tren de Aragua.

Ensign said the country's habeas corpus laws, which allow detainees to challenge the legitimacy of their arrest, were sufficient. 

Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the Venezuelan migrants, said the Trump administration was going down “a very dangerous road" with its use of the Alien Enemies Act because “every nationality in this country has gangs” and could thus be targeted.

Lawyers and family members of several of the 238 men deported to El Salvador over the weekend have said their relatives had no ties to the gang. Trump told reporters earlier Friday that the deportees went through "a very strong vetting process." 

Gelernt said El Salvador's government had turned away some deportees who were either not Venezuelan or Salvadoran, or "not men." Those people were returned to the United States, Gelernt said. 

A representative of El Salvador's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gelernt suggested that the U.S. government set up a "hearing board" to review challenges from immigrants who say they have been wrongly targeted for removal, akin to a process that existed during World War Two. 

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Nelson Renteria in San Salvador; Editing by Deepa Babington and Noeleen Walder)