The Justice Department confirmed on Tuesday that it was Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who made the decision to move forward with the deportation of 100 Venezuelan men to a infamous prison in El Salvador, despite a judge’s ruling to retain them in U.S. custody.
Noem may be held in contempt for disregarding the judge’s order. Although, in the end, it really won’t matter, will it?
Kristi Noem made call to hand over deported men to El Salvador, DOJ says https://t.co/4kPtgiCwBi
— POLITICO (@politico) November 26, 2025
From Politico:
The disclosure came in response to demands by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg that the administration identify the officials involved in authorizing an unprecedented deportation operation in March that sent the men to a prison known for abusive treatment.
Noem’s call ensured that the deportees — rounded up and expelled with virtually no due process after President Donald Trump invoked war powers to designate them as members of a transnational gang — would remain imprisoned in El Salvador under harsh conditions for months, until the U.S. helped broker a prisoner swap that resulted in all of the men being returned to Venezuela.
The Justice Department described the decision in response to efforts by Boasberg to determine why the government disregarded his March 15 order to prevent the abrupt deportations.
The judge, appointed by former President Barack Obama, has already concluded that administration officials likely engaged in criminal contempt of court in their handling of the episode.
Noem’s decision, according to the DOJ, was guided by legal advice from high level Justice Department officials.
That advice claimed the judge’s oral order to turn the deportation flights around had no force. And his written order which followed was similarly ineffective because the flights had already left U.S. airspace,
Noem OK’d El Salvador deportations despite court order: DOJ https://t.co/62Ut4jFtSo
— #TuckFrump (@realTuckFrumper) November 26, 2025
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