Abhishek Kambli, an Indian-origin Justice Department lawyer, who defended the Donald Trump administration on the deportation of gang members to El Salvador ‘against’ a judge’s order, said the White House had not defied the order as the complete decision of the judge did not arrive on time. James E Boadberg of the Federal District Court in Washington ruled that the Trump administration could not use the wartime Aliens Act to deport people without a hearing. The judge said if any planes carrying the deportees were already in the air, they should turn back. But that did not happen as three planes full of Tren de Aragua gang members were unloaded in El Salvadore and they were taken straight to the prison.
Judge’s order did not specify ‘turning planes around’
Kambli argued that the judge’s decision was not complete until it was codified in written form, the New York Times reported. The written version did not even include the specific instruction to turn planes around, he said.
A third plane did not leave US soil when the order came. But Kambli argued that it contained deportees whose cases were not covered by the judge’s order.
Timeline of plane’s take-offs and judge’s order
According to a timeline provided by the NYT, the first deportation flight department from Texas at 5.26 pm, The second flight departed at 5.44 pm. The judge’s order verbally came at 6.48 pm. “You shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” the judge said.
The NYT timeline said one of the planes was over Mexico and a second was over the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico) and a third was not taken off.
At 7.26 pm, the judge’s written order was posted online. It did not include the instruction to turn planes around. The first plane was over Honduras and the second was over Mexico and the third was still on the ground in Texas. At 7.36 pm, the third deportation flight departed from Texas.
