Boasberg Orders Federal Government to Facilitate Hearings, Possibly Return Deportees

Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

District Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia, in Washington on March 16, 2023. Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via AP

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate hearings for more than 100 individuals in Venezuela, holding that they were deported without due process earlier this year.

In an opinion on Dec. 22, Boasberg gave the administration two weeks to provide a proposal for facilitating the return of those individuals but said the government could “theoretically” provide hearings without returning them.