Judge Boasberg pushes Trump admin on president's comments about El Salvador deportations

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday hammered Justice Department lawyers about President Donald Trump's recent comments regarding the deportation of suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The president stated last month that he could persuade El Salvador to return Abrego Garcia with just one phone call, but did not give any indication that he planned to do so. The comment undermines the DOJ's argument that the U.S. does not have the power or authority to bring back migrants who have already landed in another country. 

Boasberg honed in on the comment in a court hearing, asking whether the president was being truthful when he said he could get El Salvador to release the migrant, who is being held in a Salvadoran prison.

"Didn’t the president say just last week that he could secure the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia simply by picking up the phone and asking the president of El Salvador to release him?” Boasberg asked. “Was the president telling the truth?”

Justice Department attorney Abhishek Kambli responded that the comment was more about the influence the president believes he has on El Salvador rather than the legal power to order Abrego Garcia's return, according to Politico. 

Boasberg also questioned Kambli about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s comment that the El Salvadoran prison was among the "tools in our toolkit that we will use," and asked whether she was mistaken.

“I’m not going to necessarily parse out every statement,” Kambli said. “Sometimes public statements lack the nuance of any given situation.”

When asked whether that was just another way for Kambli to say the statements were lies, the attorney responded that it was not "what I'm saying at all."

Boasberg additionally asked whether the U.S. was sending money to El Salvador to house the deported migrants, to which Kambli said the U.S. is sending "grants" to the country for "law enforcement and anti-crime purposes,” that can be used to house deported migrants. He did not indicate how much the grants were.

The judge ordered the Trump administration to provide statements under oath about the arrangement with El Salvador in order to determine whether the U.S. has custody of the migrants, even if they are currently overseas.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.