Another initiative of the Trump administration has been stifled by a federal judge, and this one has a familiar face.
Judge Jeb Boasberg, an Obama appointee and the judge who hid subpoenas relating to the Arctic Frost scandal, decided against the Trump administration in a case regarding the deportations of 137 Venezuelan nationals without a hearing.
JUST IN: Judge Boasberg has ordered the Trump administration to provide a hearing and due process for the 137 Venezuelans shuttled out of the country without due process in March after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act. https://t.co/wLB8bYX0ql pic.twitter.com/Lu37vakgYh
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 22, 2025
President Trump announced that he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to target Venezuelan narco-terrorists back in March. The proclamation declared that Tren de Aragua (TdA), a foreign terrorist organization, was engaging in irregular warfare against the United States. It further declared that the government would begin removing members of TdA from the United States in an effort to protect the country.
The Trump administration then moved to arrest numerous suspected TdA members who asked the courts to block their deportation before being removed from the country. The then individuals found themselves in El Salvador’s CECOT super-prison. The case eventually made it to Boasberg’s desk.
Boasberg found in favor of the Venezuelan nationals.
“This Court is declaring that Plaintiffs should not have been removed in the manner that they were, with virtually no notice and no opportunity to contest the bases of their removal, in clear contravention of their due-process rights,” Boasberg wrote.
“The Court finds that the only remedy that would give effect to its granting of Plaintiffs’ Motion would be to order the Government to undo the effects of their unlawful removal by facilitating a meaningful opportunity to contest their designation and the Proclamation’s validity,” the decision said. “Otherwise, a finding of unlawful removal would be meaningless for Plaintiffs, who have already been sent back to Venezuela against their wishes and without due process.”
Boasberg’s decision means that the Venezuelan nationals must be allowed to return to the United States to face trial.