Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration cannot comply with a federal judge’s order requiring deported Venezuelan migrants to be given a chance to challenge their removal.
In a sworn declaration, Rubio argued that arranging court hearings—either by returning migrants to the United States or holding remote proceedings from Venezuela—is not feasible under current conditions. He said efforts to do so would “risk material damage to U.S. foreign policy interests” in Venezuela following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.
“The United States remains involved to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States and that it also expects will be beneficial for the people of Venezuela, who have suffered tremendously,” Rubio said in the filing.
He added that those efforts involve “ongoing, intensive, and extraordinarily delicate engagement” with figures inside Venezuela’s post-Maduro leadership, including what he described as the regime of Maduro’s successor, “so-called Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.”
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg previously ordered the administration to either bring back 137 of more than 240 deported Venezuelans for court hearings or arrange remote hearings from Venezuela. The judge said the migrants were “denied their due-process rights” and were not given a meaningful opportunity to contest their deportations in federal court.
Rubio said that, “given the passage of time,” the government does not know “the whereabouts of class members,” including whether any have left Venezuela or whether authorities there have taken anyone back into custody.
Anticipating the possibility that Boasberg could rule against the administration, officials also asked the judge to pause any order while the government’s appeal moves forward.
