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The plaintiffs in J.G.G. v. Trump are non-U.S. citizen Venezuelan nationals who were denied due process before the Trump administration deported them under the Alien Enemies Act in March 2025. There is also a class of similarly situated individuals.
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Their case was assigned to Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the government to discontinue flights taking the men to CECOT prison in El Salvador. As everyone who has followed the case is aware, the government sent the men to El Salvador nonetheless. Pictures of them, hunched over, pushed through a queue to have their heads shaved before being locked away in cells they were told they would never emerge from shocked the American conscience, as did pictures of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, posed in the prison in front of a cell.
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Americans began to protest. They called for due process.
Last April, after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could continue deportations as long as deportees were provided with due process–notice of deportation and the opportunity to contest it, Judge Boasberg subsequently ruled that there was probable cause to believe the government was in criminal contempt of court for disobeying his order that it discontinue deporting people who had been denied due process on the day the flights took off.
Donald Trump responded by calling for Judge Boasberg’s impeachment.
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The case moved forward despite delays as the appellate court considered the contempt issue. In December, Justice Boasberg held that the Trump administration had denied due process to the entire plaintiff class in J.G.G. In a decision he issued on Thursday, he explained what happened after that decision, writing that he had “offered the Government the opportunity to propose steps that would facilitate hearings” to allow the men to receive due process. He explained the Trump administration’s response: “Apparently not interested in participating in this process, the Government’s responses essentially told the Court to pound sand.” Judge Boasberg chose not to do that. “Believing that other courses would be both more productive and in line with the Supreme Court’s requirements” he ordered the government to “facilitate” the plaintiffs’ return from the third countries they are in now, or if they prefer, permit them to proceed in court from abroad.
Due process is an important principle that acts as real protection for our rights. We’ve seen how important it is on the streets of Minneapolis, where masked, militarized federal agents intent on meeting quotas imposed out of the White House arrested first and asked questions later. Federal agents illegally detained and in some cases subjected people to custody in horrific conditions even though they were lawfully present in the country. Some were American citizens.
Two American citizens did not survive the occupation of Minneapolis. They were killed in plain view on the streets of the city they lived in, as they tried to witness for democracy. Their government accused them of being domestic terrorists. It lied about them, like agents lied about the man agents shot a week after Renee Good was killed, but before Alex Pretti was. In a tweet, DHS wrote that agents were conducting a targeted traffic stop when Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan national, fled the scene before being apprehended by immigration officers. DHS claimed that he resisted arrest and "violently" assaulted the officer. Then, two other people "came out from a nearby apartment and also attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle." Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg by the agent, and DHS said it was self defense.
Today, a DHS spokesperson conceded that a the agents “appear to have lied about the details of the incident.” (We questioned the truthfulness of agents’ account at the time it happened). They have been placed on leave and are under investigation. The government was forced to do right because overwhelming evidence surfaced of what agents had done wrong. And Americans seem to have finally lost patience.
Judge Boasberg’s order in this context, may seem like a small thing. But it’s not. It’s a successful step toward holding this administration accountable. It reflects the patience and persistence of one judge in a situation that has stretched out for almost a year, a case where his ability to rule has been circumscribed by higher court decisions at various points.
Judge Boasberg’s order holds the government accountable, s it to do the right thing. It’s a limited remedy because the plaintiffs were in this country without legal status and as they acknowledge in their pleadings, they may ultimately be deported. But that doesn’t negate the government’s obligation to “ensure that [their] case is handled as it would have been had [they] not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Later in the opinion, the Judge writes “It is worth emphasizing that this situation would never have arisen had the Government simply afforded Plaintiffs their constitutional rights before initially deporting them.”
And that’s the point. This is a government that doesn’t want to afford some people their constitutional rights. The burden of ensuring that it does falls upon all of us. Peaceful protest, functioning courts, members of Congress who insist of doing oversight in immigration facilities—all of these things matter. When the occupation of Minneapolis was in full swing, an investigation, ordered by the agency into the behavior of ICE agents would have been unthinkable. But now, because of people’s persistence, we are making progress. We have to keep going in that direction.
Tonight, my husband and I rewatched Judgment at Nuremberg. It’s a dark movie, but so compelling. It reminds us that there is right and wrong, even when people try to turn a blind eye or justify their own actions in the name of some greater good. History still has lessons to teach us, most importantly, the importance of not backing down in a moment like this one, because without our opposition, this administration could be doing far worse. We are where we need to be right now.
Thanks for being here with me at Civil Discourse. Your support makes the newsletter possible, and I’m grateful for you.
We’re in this together,
Joyce