A three-member appeals court will hear the Justice Department case Monday afternoon.

Boasberg said the plaintiffs likely will succeed in court.

“The Court need not resolve the thorny question of whether the judiciary has the authority to assess this claim in the first place,” Boasberg wrote in his ruling. “That is because Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on another equally fundamental theory: Before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all.”

Boasberg said use of the Alien Enemies Act “implicates a host of complicated legal issues” but didn’t decide whether the law was properly invoked.

“Federal courts are equipped to adjudicate that question when individuals threatened with detention and removal challenge their designation as such,” he ruled. “Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge.”

And he said he doubts whether his decision risks national security, saying the migrants would still be detained in the United States.

Under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, the Justice Administration believes it has the authority because they are a “hybrid criminal state” invading the United States though it has been only invoked in times of declared war against other countries. They were described as the “worst of the worst.”

“The President’s action is lawful and based upon a long history of using war authorities against organizations connected to foreign states and national security judgments, which are not subject to judicial second guessing,” DOJ lawyers have argued in court filings.

Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Friday none of the several hundred deported to El Savador’s maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center belong to the gang.

One person deported is a professional soccer player who fled Venezuela after being arrested for protesting its autocratic government. Immigration authorities allegedly are using tattoos of Spanish soccer teams, family members, crowns and the detainees’ professions to inaccurately link them to the gang.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subsequently acknowledged in a sworn declaration that “many” of the noncitizens deported did not have criminal records in the United States.

The 228 deportations were on flights to El Salvador on March 15, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on social media.

“As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime,” he posted. “But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place. All in a single action.”

Boasberg ordered the government to turn the planes around in flight but lawyers contend he had no authority to do that.

The lawsuit was filed by five Venezuelans who filed the initial lawsuit, and Boasberg expanded the order to anyone targeted under the Alien Enemies Act.

The judge was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by President George W. Bush in 2002 and elevated to the District Court in 2001 by President Barack Obama.

Trumo has blasted the judge, writing on Truth: “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President – He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn’t WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY. I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texa, last week filed impeachment articles against Boasberg. According to the U.S. Constitution, removal is for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

“Judge James Boasberg, a rogue D.C. judge, has abused his power of the judiciary, weaponized the judiciary, politicized it, to usurp President Trump’s clear plenary, Article II powers as commander in chief,” Gill said. “Remember, he did this for the purpose of turning a plane mid-air full of some of the most violent, brutal, ruthless terrorists to demand that they come back into our community. That is a usurpation of power, it’s unconstitutional, and it’s wrong.”

Attorney General Palm Bondi blasted the judge Sunday.

“This is an out-of-control judge – a federal judge trying to control our entire foreign policy,” Bondi said on Fox Business Channel. “He’s trying to ask us about national security information which he is absolutely not entitled to. … It’s basic public safety. Get these people out of our country as fast as we can.”

Other decorations

Despite the judge’s order, the Justice Department announced plans to deport three other alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to Chile under the 1798 act. DOJ described Gamez Finol, Miguel Oyola Jimenez and Edgar Javier Benitez Rubio as “alien enemies” and the “illegally entered the United States after allegedy committing horrific crimes in Chile.”

“Recognizing the grave threat that TdA poses to the nations it infiltrates, Chile has asked the United States to help return these men to Chile to face justice,” the department said. “Today, the Department of Justice announced that it will take swift action to grant these requests and send these Alien Enemies to Chile.”

The men are wanted in Chile for charges that include extortion, kidnapping resulting in homicide, unjustified firearm discharge, kidnapping for ransom, DOJ said.

They are in custody in three locations.

Finol, a dual Venezuelan and Colombian citizen, was deported from the U.S. to Venezuela in August 2023 and later allegedly re-entered the U.S. illegally. He is currently in Texas county prison serving a sentence for human smuggling.

Jimenez, a dual Venezuelan and Ecuadorian citizen, is in custody in Washington, and Rubio, a Venezuelan citizen, is in immigration custody in Indiana.

The Trump administration is planning to use other methods to deport noncitizens.

Over the weekend, Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez announced that the country had reached an agreement to resume repatriation flights of Venezuelan migrants from the U.S.

“We’re going to keep targeting the worst of the worst, which we’ve been doing since day one, and deporting from the United States through the various laws on the books,” border czar Tom Homan told ABC’s Jon Karl on Sunday.