Attorney General Pam Bondi endorsed the Trump administration’s assertion of state secrets over details of the Tren de Aragua deportation flights on Monday.
Bondi issued a court filing Monday night referencing claims from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem claiming that specific details of how and when Tren de Aragua gang members were deported on planes last week are covered under state secrets privilege and do not need to be provided to the court.
“The Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security have each submitted a declaration asserting a formal claim of state secrets privilege regarding disclosure of the information sought in the March 18, 2025 Minute Order,” Bondi wrote to the court.
“Those declarations reflect the studied and well-supported conclusion of each Secretary that disclosure of the information, even ex parte and in camera, would cause significant harm to the foreign relations and national security interests of the United States,” she added.
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President Donald Trump argues the administration cannot release information regarding the deportation of Tren de Aragua gang members. (Getty Images)
Bondi issued the filing to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which is hearing arguments in the Trump administration’s emergency appeal of a lower court ruling that temporarily blocked its use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
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Congress passed the Alien Enemies Act immigration law in 1798, and it has since been used only several times in U.S. history, most recently during World War II.
Salvadoran police officers escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua recently deported by the U.S. government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, as part of an agreement with the Salvadoran government, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in this handout image obtained March 16, 2025. (Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via Reuters)
The administration asked for a stay pending appeal shortly after an initial March 15 order was issued, calling it a “massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens who pose threats to the American people.”
Last week, Obama-appointed, D.C.-based Judge James Boasberg issued an order to immediately halt any planned deportations of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador. A plane carrying hundreds of U.S. migrants, including Venezuelan nationals removed under the law, arrived in El Salvador hours later despite the order.
Judge James Boasberg initially contested Trump’s deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty)
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Boasberg held a fact-finding hearing on Monday night, where he ordered the Trump administration to submit more information on the flights, including information on how planes departed the U.S. that were carrying any people who were deported “solely on the basis” of that proclamation, how many individuals were on each plane, where the planes landed and what time each plane took off from the U.S., and from where.
Boasberg imposed a Tuesday noon deadline to submit the information and also ordered the parties to appear in court again on Friday.
Fox News’ Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report
