Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Boasberg has taken the bench as he weighs whether to vacate his restraining order on deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
Boasberg comes in hot: Wants to know why the lawyer who originally argued the case didn't show up to hearing Monday. He says the filings since have used "the kind of intemperate and disrespectful language I’m not used to hearing from the United States."

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign says he believed Boasberg intended the planes to be turned around when he issued his oral order in court over the wekend: "I understood the intent that you meant that to be effective at that time."

DOJ has since said they didn't view it that way.

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
Now Boasberg eliciting from Ensign that DOJ/DHS sent him to argue the case Saturday without having any facts about flights. The lawyers for the deportees had more info about the flights than the government's arguing attorney.

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
BOASBERG agrees president has "wide latitude" to enforce immigration law and the Alien Enemies Act.

"It is also clear that individuals must have the chance to show that they are indeed members of a class that the AEA defines. My job is to find where the balance lies."

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
BOASBERG now laying out facts about his original ruling:

"You also understand that my TROs did not order anybody to be released into the United States. They also did not order that the government could not deport anyone via regular INA procedures."

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
MORE: His original orders "only ordered that the government could not summarily deport in-custody non-citizens subject to the proclamation."

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
BOASBERG: "The question...teed up is whether the government can summarily deport people without any individualized assessment of whether they actually fall into the category of the proclamation."

"What happens if someone is not a member of TdA or not a Venezuelan citizen?"

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
1h
DOJ agrees that individuals targeted by the Alien Enemies Act can challenge that label with a habeas petition.

Less clear is how they would do that if they're whisked onto a plane before they can file a challenge.

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
33m
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt says the deported Venezuelans did not have a "meaningful" chance to contest their designation as AEA terrorists. They want any future deportees to at least have a chance to argue against claim they are TdA members.

‪Kyle Cheney‬ ‪
@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
24m
BOASBERG: I agree the policy ramifications of this are incredibly troublesome and problematic...and I agree it’s an unprecedented and expanded use of an act that has been used, as we discussed, in the War of 1812, World War I and World War II when there was no question there was a declaration of war

Kyle Cheney
‪@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
ACLU attorney Gelernt says there were people who were returned from El Salvador after the flights because they either weren't Venezuelan or were women and the El Salvadoran government declined to take them.

BOASBERG vows to get to the bottom of whether his order was violated.
March 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM