Judge to address how he'll proceed with contempt inquiry into AEA deportations

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, in a hearing Wednesday, is set to address how he will proceed with the early stages of contempt proceedings into whether Trump administration officials violated a court order by deporting hundreds of men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act in March. The Trump administration invoked the AEA -- an 18th-century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process -- to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes be turned around, but Justice Department attorneys said his oral instructions dire