US appeals court grants Trump short-term win over Judge James Boasberg in immigration ruling
A U.S. appeals court agreed to pause a lower court order requiring the Trump administration to provide due process to hundreds of Venezuelan migrants deported from the U.S. to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in a near-term victory for the Trump administration.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the Justice Department's request for an administrative stay, putting on hold a lower court order handed down last week by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.
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Last Wednesday, Boasberg ruled that the migrants deported solely on the basis of the Alien Enemies Act immigration law did not have prior notice of their removals or the ability to challenge their removals in court, in a violation of due process.
He ordered the Trump administration to provide migrants deported under the law the opportunity to seek habeas relief, and the opportunity to challenge their alleged gang member status that the administration had pointed to as the basis for their removal.
Boasberg had given the Trump administration through Wednesday to submit to the court plans for how it would go about providing habeas relief to the plaintiffs in CECOT, the maximum security prison in El Salvador.
4 President Donald Trump gestures toward supporters as he departs the White House on June 06, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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This week, lawyers for the Trump administration filed an emergency motion to stay the ruling in both the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday, one day before that plan was due, seeking additional time to respond to the underlying merits of Boasberg's ruling.
Justice Department officials argued that Boasberg did not have jurisdiction in the case, as the migrants are detained in El Salvador, and said his order interfered 'with the president's removal of dangerous criminal aliens from the United States.'
Boasberg's final order last week did not attempt to determine who had jurisdiction. Instead, he set the matter aside, and said the individuals could remain in custody at CECOT, so long as the government submitted plans to the court for how they would be provided a chance to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act.
4 James Boasberg, incoming chief judge of the US District Court, in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, March 13, 2023.
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The Trump administration still took umbrage with that ruling, which it blasted earlier this week in their appeal as 'unprecedented, baseless and constitutionally offensive.'
'The district court's increasingly fantastical injunctions continue to threaten serious harm to the government's national-security and foreign-affairs interests,' they told the circuit court.
The court 'correctly ruled that the United States lacks constructive custody over the aliens held at CECOT and therefore that this Court lacks jurisdiction over their habeas claims,' attorneys for the Justice Department said in their motion. 'That should have been the end of this case.'
4 President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at Fort Bragg, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Fort Bragg, N.C.
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That order sparked fierce backlash from senior Trump officials, who have blasted Bosaberg and other federal judges who have ruled in ways unfavorable to them as 'activist judges.'
Boasberg, however, was the first federal judge to try to block Trump's attempt to use the law to summarily deport certain migrants to El Salvador earlier this year, putting him squarely in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.
On March 15, he granted a temporary restraining order attempting to block the first wave of deportation flights to El Salvador, and ordered the administration to 'immediately' return to the U.S. all planes that had already departed.
4 James Boasberg, chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, attends a panel discussion at the annual American Board Association (ABA) Spring Antitrust Meeting at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC, on April 2, 2025.
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That did not happen, however, and the planes landed hours later in El Salvador.'
In the months since, Boasberg attempted to hold various fact-finding hearings to determine who knew what, and when, about the flights.
He later found probable cause to hold the administration in contempt of the court, citing the government's 'willful disregard' for his March 15 emergency order, though those proceedings were later halted by a federal appeals court.
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Miami Herald
10 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Families, human rights lawyer visit El Salvador, seek to visit imprisoned Venezuelans
As a kid in rural Venezuela, Widmer Agelviz Sanguino would be awakened in the middle of the night by the screeches of nearby owls. Those frightful sounds left a lasting impression. So, when he became older, he got a tattoo on one of his arms: an owl, a clock, and a bouquet of roses. The owl and the clock were symbols of overcoming personal fears, while the roses were a homage to his paternal grandmother, who had a beautiful rose garden, his aunt Lisbeth Sanguino told the Miami Herald. 'He wanted to record on his skin his victory over his fears and his love for his paternal grandmother,' she said. Now, those symbols of personal victory have become a fearsome nightmare of their own. The tattoos were used by U.S. officials to link him to the violent gang Tren de Aragua. Agelviz Sanguino is one of more than 230 Venezuelans sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, subjected to expedited deportations without being given a chance to argue their cases in court. As part of a small mission of family members who accompanied a Venezuelan human rights lawyer to demand their loved ones' release from the Salvadoran prison this week, Lisbeth Sanguino said that while the tattoos have been claimed to be associated with Tren de Aragua, the truth is that her nephew has no gang affiliation and has never been involved in any type of crime. His case, she argued, is yet another example of the cavalier way in which those sent to El Salvador were selected—without any real evidence that they had done anything wrong other than trying to seek refuge in the United States. Invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the Trump administration deported the group of Venezuelans in March, accusing them of being criminals or members of the feared Tren de Aragua gang. They were sent to El Salvador and incarcerated at the CECOT maximum-security prison. In a brief telephone interview, human rights advocate and lawyer Walter Márquez said the Venezuelans sent to El Salvador have fallen into a kind of black hole, leaving family members without news of their whereabouts or the conditions they are in. 'El Salvador is serving as a human warehouse for these Venezuelans, who have fallen victim to an attempt to criminalize them as members of the Tren de Aragua solely because of the tattoos they might have—without a prior judicial conviction in the United States establishing that they are criminals,' Márquez said. 'This is a grave act of injustice being committed against individuals just because they have a tattoo,' said Márquez, who heads the Venezuelan human rights NGO El Amparo Internacional. 'We respect El Salvador's domestic laws to combat gangs, but we Venezuelans are not gang members; we are hard working people fleeing a political crisis and a dictatorship in our country.' Márquez, who led the mission, said that they visited El Salvador to document and denounce the situation of a group of Venezuelan citizens who, he claims, were illegally deported from the United States and are currently imprisoned at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), the country's maximum-security prison. During his visit, Márquez submitted a formal request to the Salvadoran Human Rights Ombudsman's Office (PDDH), seeking permission to visit the detainees, assess their health conditions, communicate with them, and obtain information about any legal proceedings they may be facing. 'We came to El Salvador to submit this request and document the situation of the Venezuelans who were deported from the United States and are now imprisoned in El Salvador,' Márquez said. 'We made the requests verbally and later confirmed them in writing. But they take their time. If necessary, we'll come back. For now, at least, we've filed the request. It's up to the Salvadoran State to respond,' he added. Márquez noted that several of the detainees were still involved in ongoing proceedings before U.S. immigration courts at the time of their deportation. In some cases, he claims, there were explicit court orders for their deportation to Venezuela, but they were instead sent to El Salvador—a move he described as a violation of due process. 'We are not only advocating for all those affected, but we have specifically filed a request on behalf of nine Venezuelans whom we represent legally,' he explained. Additionally, Márquez reported that on Thursday his delegation submitted a formal request to the Apostolic Nunciature in El Salvador, asking for the intervention of Pope Leo and citing the pontiff's commitment to migrant rights. 'He has said that Jesus was a migrant, and that's why we believe the Holy See can play an important role in this case,' he said. As of now, neither the government of El Salvador nor the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office has issued a public statement regarding Márquez's request. Márquez said the retention of the deported Venezuelans in the maximum security prision is unjust and illegal given that none of them have broken any laws in El Salvador or even in the United States, aside from having an irregular immigration status. He added that they would seek to 'exhaust all domestic remedies under El Salvador's law' and expressed hope that 'due process will be respected'; otherwise, they could 'resort to international bodies.' Since at least 2023, U.S. officials began targeting Venezuelans with tattoos, alleging their affiliation with Tren de Aragua based on the unsubstantiated assumption that the gang identifies itself through tattoos, according to court records. Upon taking office on January 20, the Trump administration initiated a broad campaign of deportations and immigrant targeting. This included classifying Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization and utilizing the Alien Enemies Act to expel alleged members from the U.S. However, experts contend that this approach is flawed because, unlike other Latin American gangs, members of Tren de Aragua—which originated in a notorious prison in Venezuela's Aragua state—do not typically use tattoos for identification. Trump's crackdown on suspected gang members comes amid reports that the Nicolás Maduro regime has been actively enabling Tren de Aragua's expansion. The gang, now Venezuela's most powerful transnational criminal organization, is allegedly being used in a campaign to destabilize neighboring countries and the United States. A January 2025 FBI memo describes a coordinated strategy by the Venezuelan regime to release violent criminals, facilitate their migration abroad, and deploy them as unofficial enforcers—not only across Latin America, but increasingly in U.S. cities. The memo was submitted by the Trump administration on Thursday to a federal judge in Texas, who is overseeing one of a growing number of lawsuits challenging the government's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members to El Salvador's notorious mega-prison.
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Iran launches missiles, drones at Israel as Israel attacks Iran's nuclear sites
Warning sirens sounded across Israel on Friday and a military official told CBS News that dozens of Iranian ballistic missiles were en route to Israel. The country's population had been instructed to remain in bomb shelters until further notice. The apparent retaliatory action from Iran came after Israel has launched over 200 airstrikes on Iran — continuing a major operation that began overnight, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said Friday. Israel's airstrikes are continuing, Defrin said. Israel first launched airstrikes on Iran early Friday and announced its operation was targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, scientists and senior military commanders. Tehran responded by launching more than 100 drones at Israel on Friday morning, Israel's military said. Defrin said earlier Friday that Israel's air defenses had worked to "intercept the threats." Later Friday, an Israeli military official told reporters that while the threat wasn't over, Israel had managed to intercept many of Iran's UAVs. "Throughout the day, we once again demonstrated our ability to remove threats in a coordinated, precise and daring manner," Defrin said Friday night. In a televised statement on Friday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Iranian Armed Forces would respond fiercely to the strikes and leave Israel "helpless." Shortly after the statement, the IDF confirmed that its fighter jets had "completed a strike on the Iranian regime's nuclear site in the Isfahan area." Ishafan is in central Iran. The strike "dismantled a facility for producing metallic uranium, infrastructure for reconverting enriched uranium, laboratories, and additional infrastructure," the IDF said. The U.S. was not involved in Israel's strikes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, adding a warning that "Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel." President Trump said in a post Friday morning on his Truth Social media platform that he had given Iran "chance after chance" to make a deal with the U.S. on its nuclear program, but that despite his warnings to Tehran that the alternative would be "much worse" than anything seen before, "they just couldn't get it done." "There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end," Mr. Trump said. "Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left." In a later post on Friday, Mr. Trump said he "gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to 'make a deal.' They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn't get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!" Israel has intercepted virtually every Iranian weapon launched in previous large-scale attacks by the Islamic republic. The retaliatory action by Iran was long anticipated and well planned for, Defrin said. Iran's President Mahsoud Pezeshkian said Friday on Iranian TV that the country would "strongly take action" against Israel in response to the attacks, promising "a severe, wise and strong answer." "The Iranian nation and the country's officials will not remain silent in the face of this crime, and the legitimate and powerful response of the Islamic Republic of Iran will make the enemy regret its foolish act," he said. Israel says it destroyed Iran's air defenses, killed top commanders Earlier Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the IDF had begun "Operation Rising Lion," with a massive wave of airstrikes against dozens of Iranian nuclear sites, military commanders and research scientists, saying the goal was to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival." Like Netanyahu, Defrin, the IDF spokesman, called the attack on Iran preemptive in a video statement delivered Friday, saying Israeli intelligence had uncovered an Iranian "plan to destroy Israel that has taken shape in recent years." He said that plan involved Iran "racing towards a nuclear bomb," working to double or triple its ballistic missile stockpile, and continuing to "finance, arm, and operate its proxies throughout the Middle East against the State of Israel." "I can confirm that the senior security leadership of the Iranian regime has been eliminated in the strike: the Iranian Chief of Staff, [Mohammad] Bagheri; the Commander of the Revolutionary Guards, [Hossein] Salami; and the Head of the Emergency Command, [Gholamali] Rashid," Defrin said, adding that other commanders had been killed and that Israeli would provide further updates. He said Israel had "targeted and struck the Iranian regime's aerial defense arrays." The IDF said its operation would continue for days, but that the first wave consisted of 200 Israeli fighter jets dropping "over 330 different munitions," to hit more than 100 targets in Iran. "The breadth and scale of these strikes — against senior Iranian officials and other military facilities in addition to nuclear sites — suggest this operation is intended to not just dissuade Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, but also cripple any potential military response and even to destabilize the regime," Matthew Savill, Director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, a British military think tank, said in a statement. "Israel has once again demonstrated its considerable conventional military superiority, and the size of the force allegedly assembled for this series of attacks represents the overwhelming bulk of their longer-range strike aircraft. They have the ability to conduct multiple such rounds of strikes, but operating for an extended duration over this considerable range will stretch even the Israeli Air Force." Savill said Iran's response "might be delayed or split into multiple phases, but their main weapon will be ballistic missiles, which have the best chance of inflicting damage on Israel, whereas drone and cruise missile attacks will face more extensive Israeli defenses. Israel operations have therefore targeted air defenses and ballistic missile sites to forestall this." Savill said that if Iran "believes the U.S. or others were involved" in the Israeli strike, then their retaliation could include targeting the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, and American air facilities in Qatar, "though both would widen the conflict to drag in others." NATO chief urges de-escalation, says nuclear clash "not close" Iranian state media said the Israeli strikes had hit several cities, including in the capital of Tehran and the city of Natanz, a key center for Iran's uranium enrichment program. The IDF said it struck Iran's uranium enrichment site in the Natanz area. "The underground area of the site was damaged," the IDF said in a statement. "This area contains a multi-story enrichment hall with centrifuges, electrical rooms, and additional supporting infrastructure. In addition, critical infrastructure enabling the site's continuous operation and the Iranian regime's ongoing efforts to obtain nuclear weapons were targeted." The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, said in a series of social media posts that its Director General, Rafael Grossi, had been in contact with Iranian authorities on Friday, who told him the country's highly-sensitive and highly-secured Fordo nuclear site "has not been impacted" by the Israeli strikes. Later Friday, Reuters reported that two explosions had been heard near the site and that state media said Iranian air defenses had shot down an Israeli drone near the facility. The IAEA also said Iran's "Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant had not been targeted and that no increase in radiation levels has been observed at the Natanz site." On Friday, during a visit to Sweden, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters that "this was a unilateral action by Israel. So I think it is crucial for many allies, including the United States, to work as we speak to de-escalate." Despite the ongoing attacks, Rutte said he believed the region was "not close" to a possible nuclear conflict. While there have been no claims that Iran has yet built a nuclear weapon, Israel is believed to have multiple warheads, though it has never formally confirmed nor denied its status as a nuclear-armed nation. Iranian officials quickly threatened retaliation to the attack, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying Israel "should await a harsh response." The IDF said in a statement before Iran's retaliatory strikes that it had prepared for "a campaign on the frontline and on the home front." Netanyahu said Israel's strikes against Iran, "will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat." Shortly after Israel's strikes, the U.S. Embassy in Israel ordered American personnel to shelter in place. A day beforehand, the Trump administration ordered non-emergency U.S. personnel to leave Iraq and allowed U.S. military family members to leave the Middle East voluntarily. Risk of an escalating regional conflict Israel has carried out strikes against Iranian proxies in recent years, while Iran has backed foes of Israel, including the militant group Hamas. In April of last year, Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel after a strike on Iran's consulate in Damascus was widely attributed to Israel, but the Israeli military intercepted the vast majority of the weapons. Six months later, Iran launched more missiles at Israel, which retaliated with strikes on Iranian sites. Friday's back-and-forth could escalate to be among the most severe clashes between Israel and Iran, which have been adversaries for decades. Mr. Trump warned earlier in the week that the strikes could snowball into a "massive" conflict. Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think tank, said in a statement Friday that the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen could play a role in the Iranian response to Israel. "With Iran currently weakened and humiliated, this marks the first time the Houthis will be called upon to repay decades of Iranian investment and support," Al-Muslimi predicted. "Following the killing of Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis have effectively become Iran's first line of defense against Israel — an increasingly central role." Al-Muslimi said the Houthi response could extend beyond retaliatory strikes on Israel itself. "Strikes in the Red Sea will likely resume, the ceasefire with the United States may unravel, and we shouldn't be surprised if Saudi Arabia and the UAE are dragged back into direct conflict in Yemen," Al-Muslimi said. "Attacks by the Houthis on U.S. military bases in the Gulf, the Horn of Africa, and naval forces at sea are also highly plausible." Fabian Hinz, an air warfare expert at London's International Institute of Strategic Studies, told the Associated Press that Iran's current capabilities are potentially "more threatening to the U.S. military than to Israel." Iran has a "huge arsenal" of shorter-range missiles, Hinz said, and there are a number of U.S. military bases in the region. He said Iran also has "lots of anti-ship capabilities." "Think of the Iranian shipping threat as similar in quality to the Houthi threat, but much larger in quantity," Hinz told the AP. Israeli attack casts doubt on fate of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks The Israeli strikes and Iranian counterattack came amid efforts by President Trump to strike a new deal with Iran to limit the country's nuclear ambitions — an idea Israel has long been dubious of. The U.S. and Iran were set to hold talks Sunday, multiple U.S. officials told CBS News. There was no immediate comment from any high-ranking Iranian officials that those plans would change after Israel's attack, but some reports in Iranian media outlets indicated Iran would likely no longer participate in the negotiations. "With Israel's actions, the sixth round of negotiations with the United States will probably not be held," Iranian lawmaker Aladdin Boroujerdi, a member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said, according to Iranian media. Michal Ben-Gal, Seyed Bathaei, Jennifer Jacobs and Olivia Gazis contributed to this report. Video shows Air India plane crashing in Ahmedabad Air India plane crashes shortly after takeoff, carrying more than 240 people Remembering the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Appeals court deals Trump blow in challenge to E Jean Carroll verdict
An appellate court in New York on Friday rejected President Donald Trump's bid to toss out a jury's verdict that the president sexually abused and defamed former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll. The full panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit declined to hear Trump's arguments, leaving Trump the option to turn to the Supreme Court as the last form of relief in a yearslong case that stemmed from Carroll's shocking claim in 2019 that Trump raped her in a dressing room three decades ago. In his appeal, Trump challenged evidence that Carroll's legal team introduced to the jury during the civil lawsuit, including the Access Hollywood tape that surfaced during Trump's 2016 campaign. Us Appeals Court Upholds Trump Verdict In E Jean Carroll Case Two Trump-appointed judges on the appellate court dissented and said they would have granted Trump's request and reconsidered the verdict. The pair of judges said the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump lewdly spoke about making passes at women, did not offer relevant context in relation to Carroll's claims. The tape functioned as "propensity evidence," which is typically inadmissible in court, the judges said. Read On The Fox News App "If the panel opinion remains a precedent of our court, a future plaintiff or the government will be able to introduce evidence of prior conduct in which a defendant went on a mundane outing and sometime thereafter made a sexual advance," they wrote in their dissent. Trump Scores 'Unequivocal Victory' Against Pulitzer Prize Board Members, Court Denies Request To Dismiss Suit Carroll sued Trump, a one-time New York real estate mogul, twice after she released her book in 2019, which claimed Trump raped her during a brief encounter with him in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. Trump vigorously denied the claims, saying he had never met Carroll, that she was not his "type" and that she fabricated the incident to sell books. His vocal and repeated criticisms and denials led to Carroll's defamation allegations. The appellate court's decision on Friday relates to a lawsuit Carroll brought in 2022, in which a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million. The jury also found Trump did not rape Carroll, as Carroll had alleged. Carroll brought a second lawsuit right after her book release, alleging Trump defamed her in the aftermath of the book being published. A jury in that lawsuit awarded Carroll $83 million. Trump is also appealing that article source: Appeals court deals Trump blow in challenge to E Jean Carroll verdict
