The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to step in and allow the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador while a legal battle plays out in lower courts.
The move comes two days after an appeals court upheld a temporary block on the Trump administration's ability to deport illegal migrants under the Alien Enemies Act.
In their request, the DOJ argued that federal courts should not be allowed to interfere with diplomatic matters, the Associated Press reports.
"The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President," Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the request. "The republic cannot afford a different choice."
Earlier this month US District Judge James Boasberg paused the flights by ruling that alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua deserve a hearing to deny they belong to the gang. Boasberg also demanded details on two flights on March 15 to determine whether the administration defied his oral and written orders to block them.
The Trump administration also asked the Supreme Court to overturn Boasberg's order pausing flights, and to put that order on hold while they consider that request.
"Those orders – which are likely to extend additional weeks – now jeopardize sensitive diplomatic negotiations and delicate national-security operations, which were designed to extirpate TdA’s presence in our country before it gains a greater foothold," wrote Harris.
The Supreme Court has asked lawyers for some of the deported Venezuelans to respond by 10am Tuesday to the Trump admin request.
The DOJ has argued that Trump had the authority to declare TdA a foreign terrorist organization and deport them without hearings. Government lawyers also refused to release flight information on the deportations, arguing that it would reveal sources and methods behind the deportations.
"Once that secondary disclosure occurred, any opportunity for appellate review would be moot; the damage would be done, and the effect on United States foreign policy could be catastrophic," the DOJ wrote.
The DOJ insists that the government obeyed Boasberg's written order blocking the flights, but says that his earlier oral order while the flights were in the air weren't enforceable. Government lawyers also contend that Trump had the authority to conduct the flights as commander-in-chief of the US military and the country's head of foreign affairs.
Trump, meanwhile, has called for Boasberg's impeachment - saying that the lifetime Obama-appointee is "a troublemaker and agitator."
