Judge James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Mar. 16, 2023. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
That assertion came roughly one month after the Trump administration in March invoked a 1798 wartime immigration law to more quickly deport Venezuelan nationals, including alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Prior to March, the U.S. invoked the law just three times, including most recently during World War II.
Lawyers representing the migrants argued Monday that the statement included in the U.N. report should be grounds for plaintiffs to seek additional discovery in the case, which had been overseen by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg beginning in March.
WHO IS JAMES BOASBERG, THE US JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP'S DEPORTATION EFFORTS?
Demonstrators gather outside the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, to protest the Trump administration's deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador in March in what administration officials said was an administrative error, on July 7, 2025. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox News Digital)
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ordered the administration on Wednesday to explain its position to the court in light of the new revelations.
"Defendants have repeatedly skirted this Court's directive to provide information regarding the steps they have taken and will take to facilitate the return of ['Cristian’] to the United States," the judge wrote in an order Wednesday evening, referring to a man deported to El Salvador in March.
She noted that the defendants "have repeatedly made oblique references to their request of 'assistance' from the U.S. Department of State, which has 'entered into negotiations to facilitate Cristian's return' and 'assumed responsibility on behalf of the U.S. Government for ... diplomatic discussions with El Salvador.'"
Gallagher ruled in April that the government violated a 2024 settlement between DHS and a group of young asylum seekers in deporting him before his case was fully heard in court.
As of this writing, however, he has not been returned to the country.
SUPREME COURT GRANTS TRUMP REQUEST TO LIFT STAY HALTING VENEZUELAN DEPORTATIONS
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ordered the administration on Wednesday to explain its position to the court in light of the new revelations. (Getty)
The revelation could also come to the fore in another major hearing this week.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis will hear from Trump administration officials and lawyers for Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia as she weighs a request from Abrego's attorneys to transfer him back to U.S. custody in Maryland.
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Abrego is currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals in Tennesee but could be released as early as next week. Plaintiffs have cited deep concerns that the Trump administration would immediately seek to take him into ICE custody upon release and deport him to a third country— a notion the administration did not dispute.
Xinis, for her part, has taken umbrage with the Trump administration's evasiveness and slow-walking of information, which she likened earlier this week to "trying to nail Jell-O to a wall."
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-has-custody-over-jailed-cecot-migrants-el-salvador-says-complicating-court-fights