Full appeals court to hear arguments over contempt inquiry into CECOT deportations

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has agreed to hear arguments over a federal judge’s attempt to hold the Trump administration in contempt for the deportation of more than a hundred Venezuelans to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison last year. 

The court will hear the appeal en banc — to be considered by the entire bench — on Sept. 29. 

A divided panel of judges on the same court in April halted the criminal contempt inquiry into former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials for their role in the deportations after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg concluded that “probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt.”

The Trump administration, in March 2025, invoked the Alien Enemies Act — 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 directing the flight to be returned were defective, and the deportations proceeded as planned.

The Venezuelan nationals were ultimately released to their home country from CECOT in a prisoner swap last July.