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A federal judge on Monday pushed a Justice Department lawyer on Monday why the Trump administration failed to comply with an order to temporarily suspend deportation under 18th century law, asking why important information has been withheld on flights from the weekend.
During the tense hearing, US District Judge James Boasberg summed the administration’s position on the court’s order starting Saturday as “We don’t care, we do what we want to do.” Boasberg had instructed the airplane carrying the decoy to return to the US.
Justice Department lawyer Abhishek Kambli said the administration complied with the judge’s written order hours after Boasberg’s oral ruling at an emergency hearing on Saturday. Kambli added that the written ruling takes priority over those issued from the bench, “We believe we comply with the order.”
The judge said the order was an order.
“You say you felt you could ignore it because it wasn’t an order written,” Boasberg said, calling the Justice Department’s argument “stretch.”
He asked many questions about Kambli about the flights – how many were in the air at the time, how many were in the air, etc. – and the lawyer refused to provide details citing national security concerns.
The alien enemy law is the rarely used 1798 law that allows the president to imprison and deport non-citizens during wartime. This is what you need to know.
“We are only allowed to say what we said,” Kambli said in the court application.
The filing of the matter stated that the plaintiffs in the suit “cannot use these cases to obstruct the president’s national security and foreign influence authorities, and the court lacks jurisdiction to do so.”
The judge ordered Kambli to answer some questions about the flight by noon Tuesday, and ordered him to give him an official explanation of why he was unable to disclose that information in court at Monday’s hearing and the forum where those questions could be answered.
Boasberg said he would issue written orders with these questions after hearings that “evidently my oral orders are not putting much weight on me.” He had scheduled another hearing on the matter Friday.
Just before the hearing, the Justice Department sent a letter to a federal court of appeals seeking to remove Boasberg from the lawsuit, claiming that the administration had put national security at stake by investigating the initiative it announced Saturday.
“The government cannot answer sensitive questions about national security and diplomatic relations with orderly briefings or a rushed attitude that shows that these questions are somehow important to live issues.
The court is centered around the Trump administration’s use of the alien enemy law of 1798, and deporting individuals who they claim to be part of Venezuelan gang Tren de Lagua.
18th century law gives presidents the ability to expel immigrants from “hostile” countries at war or when foreign governments perpetuate “aggression.” It has not been called since 1941.
Boasberg had scheduled a hearing to determine the event’s timeline since Saturday evening order temporarily blocked Trump’s alien enemies and forced members of Tren DeLagua.
On Saturday, the judge told Justice Department attorneys to notify clients “quickly” that the planes involved in the deportation and those within them, subject to his order, should be returned to the United States, but in a submission on Sunday, the government reported that “the gang members removed under inspection had already been removed from US territory.”
“But I’m leaving to you whether you’re looking back at the plane or not, whether you’re not allowed to take people on the plane or someone covered by the plane,” Boasberg said Saturday. “But this is what you need to ensure you adhere to immediately.”
The Justice Department attempted to clear Monday’s hearing hours before it occurred, saying questions about the location of the plane “relevant to national security, diplomacy and sensitive questions about coordination with foreign countries that are “not material or appropriate.”
This story first appeared on nbcnews.com. More from NBC News:
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