Americans may have to pay to extradite suspected members of a ‘foreign terrorist group’ to the US, Judge James Boasberg said.
Suspected members of the “foreign terrorist group” Tren de Aragua could be returned to the US after their deportation in 2025, and it could come at taxpayers’ expense.
US District Judge James Boasberg, who has repeatedly split with the Trump administration, ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to facilitate the return of 137 immigrants deported from El Salvador’s notorious prison, CECOT, by 2025.
Boasberg put in his decision to have the government pay for immigrants returning to the US, meaning taxpayers may be footing the bill.
Boasberg asserted that “it is not clear why the plaintiffs should bear the financial costs of their return in such a situation,” noting that “this situation would not have arisen if the Government had simply granted the plaintiffs their constitutional rights before deporting them.”
The decision comes as part of a nearly year-long saga in which a federal judge tried to halt the Trump administration’s deportation of immigrants from El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act until March 2025.
The Supreme Court finally allowed the Trump administration to continue using the Alien Enemies Act to deport them in April but ordered that the detainees receive notice and an opportunity to contest the allegations.
Boasberg has since been navigating legal paths with the El Salvadoran men, ruling in December that the Trump administration denied them due process.
It is not clear how many men will take the offer back to the US, and Boasberg noted that those who do not live there will be “arrested upon arrival” in the US.
Similar to Boasberg’s decision, another federal judge this month ordered the Trump administration to pay for the return of three immigrant families, a judge ruled that ICE illegally deported with parole until 2023.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital Thursday in response to the decision that illegal aliens in El Salvador were removed under proper legal authority, before being shot like Boasberg.
“Nothing has changed; in addition to being in our country illegally, these immigrants are foreign terrorists designated as anonymous enemies by the president,” McLaughlin told Fox News Digital.
“They were removed from proper legal authority. This case is no longer about the facts or the law but about Judge Boasberg’s fight to stop President Trump from doing the will of the American people. He has been shut down by the appeals courts multiple times in this case.”
Boasberg has become a key target for Republicans on a number of decisions related to Trump-era policies, including the Trump administration’s support for the impeachment of the judge and other “corrupt” judges in January.
Immigrants in El Salvador were removed under The Alien Enemies Act, a wartime immigration law from 1798 that the Trump administration sought to deport violent gang members with ties to organized crime, such as the Tren de Aragua (TdA).
TdA, along with MS-13, were designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration’s State Department in February 2025.
The administration has described those deported from a low-security prison in El Salvador as “violent extremists” and terrorists who pose a threat to US security.
A previous analysis of 238 migrants deported from El Salvador found six charged with attempted murder, assault, armed robbery, firearms possession or domestic battery charges in the US, the Texas Tribune reported in May 2025.
Another 32 deportees were convicted in the US of crimes, most of which were non-violent, according to the report.
DHS said the deportees labeled by the media as “‘non-criminals’ are terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and more – they just don’t have a US passport”
