WASHINGTON — A federal judge said Wednesday he found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders last month to turn around planes carrying deportees to an El Salvador prison.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, whom President Donald Trump has said should be impeached, marks a dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches of government over the president's powers to carry out key White House priorities.
Boasberg accused administration officials of rushing deportees out of the country under the Alien Enemies Act last month before they could challenge their removal in court, and then willfully disregarding his order that planes already in the air should return to the United States.
The judge warned he could hold hearings and potentially refer the matter for prosecution if the administration does not act to remedy the violation. If the Justice Department declines to prosecute the matter, Boasberg said he will appoint another attorney to do so.
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FILE - In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, a prison guard transfers deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP, File)
"The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it," wrote Boasberg, the chief judge of Washington's federal court.
The administration said it would appeal.
Administration officials repeatedly criticized judges for reigning in the president's actions, accusing the courts of improperly impinging on his executive powers.
Trump and his allies called for impeaching Boasberg, prompting a rare statement from Chief Justice John Roberts, who said "impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision."
Boasberg said the government could avoid contempt proceedings if it takes custody of the deportees, who were sent to the El Salvador prison in violation of his order, so they have a chance to challenge their removal. It was not clear how that would work because he said the government "would not need to release any of those individuals, nor would it need to transport them back to the homeland."
The judge did not say which official or officials could be held in contempt. He gave the government until April 23 to explain the steps it has taken to remedy the violation, or instead identify the individual or people who made the decision not to turn the planes around.
In a separate case, the administration has acknowledged wrongly deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the El Salvador prison, but does not intend to return him to the U.S. despite a Supreme Court ruling that the administration must "facilitate" his release.
The judge in that case said she is determining whether to undertake contempt proceedings, saying officials "appear to have done nothing to aid in Abrego Garcia's release from custody and return to the United States."
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen speaks to the press in La Libertad, El Salvador, where he arrived regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland and deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday and met with the country's vice president to push for the release of Abrego Garcia, who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at a news conference in San Salvador after the meeting that Vice President Félix Ulloa said his government could not return Abrego Garcia to the United States and refused to allow Van Hollen to visit him in the notorious gang prison where he is being held.
“Why is the government of El Salvador continuing to imprison a man where they have no evidence that he’s committed any crime and they have not been provided any evidence from the United States that he has committed any crime?" Van Hollen told reporters after the meeting. “They should just let him go.â€
The Trump administration and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said this week they have no basis to send him back, despite the U.S. Supreme Court order.Â
Trump officials claim Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, has ties to the MS-13 gang, but his attorneys say the government provided no evidence of that and Abrego Garcia disputed that claim. He has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.
"We have an unjust situation here," Van Hollen said. "The Trump administration is lying about Abrego Garcia. The American courts have looked at the facts."
FILE - Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md., April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)
Boasberg, who was nominated for the federal bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, ordered the administration last month not to deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act after Trump invoked the 1798 wartime law over what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
When Boasberg was told there were already planes in the air headed to El Salvador, which has agreed to house deported migrants in a notorious prison, the judge said the aircraft needed to be returned to the United States.
Hours later, El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, announced that the deportees arrived in his country. In a social media post, he said, "Oopsie … too late" above an article referencing Boasberg's order.
The Supreme Court this month vacated Boasberg's temporary order blocking the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, but said the immigrants must be given a chance to fight their removals before they are deported. The conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom.
Protecting rural immigrant populations from expanding reach of ICE
Protecting rural immigrant populations from expanding reach of ICE
Helping people understand their rights might seem like dry legal work, but working for Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Association (JCIRA) allowed Courtney Morales-Thral, the Multicultural Center administrator, to make a real difference in the lives of immigrants on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.
"We heard recently that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was parked in front of the hospital in Port Angeles, and that stopped someone from going to see a baby in the hospital because they didn't feel safe," Morales-Thrall told . "That's going to make people turn around and go home or go to a different hospital, which may be out here, rurally, an hour or two away"
Despite the Keep Washington Working Act passed in 2019, which prohibits law enforcement from detaining anyone to determine their immigration status and working with CBP or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, amongst other rights, immigrants have good reasons to feel nervous.Â
The immigrant community here still bears the trauma of a campaign waged against them in 2008.Â
After a suspected terrorist was apprehended at the Port Angeles border, the number of agents increased from four agents to 25. Suddenly, checkpoints appeared on highways, with CBP and ICE agents demanding to see IDs and other documents from drivers and bus passengers. They also monitored public places, like hospitals and schools.Â
In the 2011 documentary it was reported that between February and November 2008, the border patrol stopped 24,524 vehicles at 53 roadblocks in Washington State. These stops led to 81 undocumented immigrants being taken into custody, though they were unable to find any additional evidence of terrorist activity. "The community was decimated by the amount of deportations, stops, and the trauma of that time in this area," Morales-Thrall said.
In that same documentary, Pastor John Topal from St. Mary of the Sea Catholic Church in Port Townsend summed up the cultural shift by saying, "The border patrol says it will not apprehend people in churches or schools, but their presence at these institutions nevertheless has had a chilling effect."
Trump's recent executive order allowing ICE into formerly protected spaces like hospitals and schools has reignited that trauma for many in the immigrant community, regardless of the State's new protections.Â
Linda Rosenbury, the superintendent of Port Townsend Schools, is working closely with JCIRA to help parents and high school students understand their rights and give them the support and reassurance they need to continue attending school.
The school is also working with staff to understand what types of warrants allow immigration agents into part of the school beyond the main office and what kind of legal support they can get if they have an emergency need.
Alongside having clear messaging for immigrant families and teaching staff, the school also helps families make plans in case anything does happen.
"When I've studied ICE raids in the past, it's a major impact on a community. If there is an ICE raid at a local employer and then there are multiple children left without caretakers," Rosenbury said. "If we had to place students in homes, we would follow family plans and ensure that there's a safe place for every student."
While the schools are focusing on the physical well-being of immigrant families, JCIRA has found a way to help support both their understanding of their rights and their mental well-being through a trauma-informed therapy program specifically for immigrants.Â
"We started a mental health partnership with an organization, a nonprofit based in Mexico because therapy is hugely cost-prohibitive for a lot of people and also has a lack of cultural understanding and language proficiency," Morales-Thrall said.
JCIRA connects local immigrants with a therapist in Mexico who specializes in migration and trauma through a new low-bar support program.Â
"The majority of the immigrants we work with are Mexican, Latino, Guatemalan, and so that's the focus, but it's not just for those people," Morales-Thrall said. This program brought a resource to rural Jefferson County, whose local hospital has struggled to find the resources to provide even basic language support.Â
"There's one doctor that speaks pretty good Spanish, and so that's really great, but therapists, absolutely not," Morales-Thrall said. "And even if they had a nice white lady that speaks Spanish, it wouldn't be the same. Because people need that cultural understanding when you're talking about immigration."
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