[Source: Reuters]

A U.S. federal judge on Monday pressed the Trump administration to provide details about hundreds of Venezuelans it deported despite a court order barring it from doing so, and gave the government until Tuesday to explain why officials believed they had complied with his order.

President Donald Trump’s administration deported more than 200 Venezuelans it says were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that has been linked to kidnapping, extortion and contract killings, to El Salvador over the weekend, even as Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked the government from using a wartime law to carry out the deportations.

Boasberg had earlier instructed the government to provide details on the timing of the flights that transported the Venezuelans to El Salvador, including whether they took off after his order was issued.

He upbraided the government’s lawyer for the administration’s response during a hearing on Monday.

The hearing followed a request by the government to remove the judge from the case. The Trump administration has challenged the historic checks and balances between the U.S. branches of government.

Since taking office in January, Trump has sought to push the boundaries of executive power, cutting spending authorized by Congress, dismantling agencies and firing thousands of federal workers.

Monday’s session was prompted by an emergency hearing on Saturday in which the American Civil Liberties Union, a civil rights group, requested that Boasberg issue a two-week temporary block on Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out the deportations.

The White House asserted on Sunday that federal courts have no jurisdiction over Trump’s authority to expel foreign enemies under the 18th-century law, historically used only in wartime, though it also said it had complied with the order.

In a court filing shortly before Monday’s hearing, the Trump administration said a spoken directive from the judge on Saturday to return any planes carrying the migrants was “not enforceable” because it was not in a written order.

The administration said it did not violate Boasberg’s subsequent written order barring immigration authorities from removing migrants because the planes had already departed when it was issued.

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