The Trump administration on Monday invoked the “state secrets privilege” and declined to provide a federal judge with further details regarding the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law—an increasingly contentious case amid rising tensions with the judiciary.
The move comes as Chief Judge James Boasberg considers whether the administration defied his order to halt deportation flights carrying migrants accused of gang affiliations, citing a lack of due process.
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Boasberg has requested specifics about when the planes landed and who was on board, but the Trump administration argues that disclosing such information would compromise “diplomatic and national security concerns.”
Also Monday, government attorneys urged an appeals court to overturn Judge James Boasberg’s order and allow deportations of Venezuelan migrants to resume—an appeal that appeared to split the panel of judges, The Associated Press reported.
During arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judge Patricia Millett remarked that even Nazis detained in the U.S. during World War II received better legal treatment than the Venezuelan migrants recently deported to El Salvador under the same statute.
“We certainly dispute the Nazi analogy,” responded Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign.
The administration has already deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, marking the first time the Alien Enemies Act has been invoked since World War II.
