Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is now one step closer to possible criminal trouble, after a federal judge ordered two key Justice Department officials to take the stand in a messy fight over migrant deportation flights to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled that Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign and former DOJ attorney turned whistleblower Erez Reuveni must testify about how and why the Trump administration went ahead with deporting more than 100 Venezuelan men in March, despite a court directive to halt removals.
The case focuses on whether Noem and senior Justice Department lawyers willfully defied Boasberg’s March 15 order pausing the use of the 18th century Alien Enemies Act to send Venezuelan detainees to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega prison, a facility already under fire from human rights groups.
In a written ruling, Boasberg said the court could not rely on carefully worded filings alone and needed live witnesses to explain what happened in the crucial hours when the planes took off.
“The Court thus believes that it is necessary to hear witness testimony to better understand the bases of the decision to transfer the deportees out of United States custody,” he wrote, adding that the events around that decision “should shed light” on whether his order was ignored.
JUST IN: Judge Boasberg says it’d be “premature” to refer Kristi Noem for a contempt prosecution but orders testimony next week from DOJ whistleblower Erez Rueveni and Deputy Assistant AG Drew Ensign. https://t.co/1ipepMsKgh pic.twitter.com/WGBD6B5w7y
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 8, 2025
Ensign, a senior official in the Office of Immigration Litigation, was in court on March 15 when Boasberg asked whether any deportations under the Alien Enemies Act were planned in the next 48 hours. According to court records, Ensign said he did not know and asked for time to find out. While the hearing was paused, three planes carrying Venezuelan and Salvadoran detainees left Harlingen, Texas, bound for El Salvador.
Reuveni, who was later fired, has accused top officials of deliberately sidestepping the judge’s directive and has provided a detailed whistleblower complaint to Congress describing internal discussions about the flights and pressure not to put anything sensitive in writing.
Noem has insisted she relied on legal advice from Justice Department and Homeland Security lawyers when she approved continuing the transfers. In a sworn declaration, she said she understood that the migrants “had already been removed” from the United States before any binding court order took effect.
Boasberg wrote that Noem’s statement “does not provide enough information for the Court to determine whether her decision was a willful violation of the Court’s Order,” and said that, for now, it would be “premature” to refer her or anyone else for prosecution for criminal contempt.
The Justice Department, citing attorney client and deliberative process privileges, has resisted offering more detail about the advice given to Noem before the planes left. Officials maintain that they did not intentionally violate Boasberg’s order and argue that by the time his written directive was issued, the key deportation flights were already underway or completed.
Immigration advocates have zeroed in on the Alien Enemies Act itself, an obscure wartime law that had rarely been used in modern times until Trump invoked it to fast track the removal of Venezuelans his administration labeled members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Many of those deported had never been charged with crimes, and were flown directly into indefinite detention in El Salvador without individual hearings.
