The back and forth between a federal judge and the Trump administration over the timing of two flights it arranged last weekend deporting a group of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under the extraordinary powers of a wartime statute will last at least another day.
The judge in the case, James E. Boasberg, has given the Justice Department until noon on Thursday to respond to his demand for the information, which he originally wanted by noon on Wednesday.
But two hours before that deadline, Justice Department lawyers made an emergency request to push it back. While Judge Boasberg granted the lawyers an additional 24 hours, he wrote in an order that the grounds they had offered for the delay “at first blush are not persuasive” — and even took a swipe at department for having asked so last-minute.
Judge Boasberg has asked the government to tell him — under seal if necessary — what time the planes took off from U.S. soil and from where, what time they left U.S. airspace and what time they landed. Much of this information appears to already be available in public flight databases, but clearly the judge wants an official record from the administration.
The judge is trying to determine whether the Trump administration violated his order not to deport the immigrants on the flights, which the administration has denied.
(A third plane also flew to El Salvador on Saturday but it has not figured in the dispute between the judge and the administration because officials say that the immigrants on board were removed under traditional immigration practices, not under the wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act.)