Trump Declines to Share Flight Data in Gang Deportation Case, Citing State Secrets

The Trump administration has refused to comply with a federal judge’s request for flight data related to the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, citing concerns that the information would jeopardize state secrets and national security, Bloomberg reports.

The Justice Department’s decision to withhold the requested data marks an escalation in the legal standoff with US District Judge James Boasberg, who has demanded answers from the administration regarding its use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

The dispute began after Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order on March 15 halting further deportations, but sought details about two prior flights carrying alleged gang members to a Salvadoran prison. Specifically, he wanted to know the takeoff times and locations, when the planes left US airspace, when and where they landed, when the Venezuelans were transferred out of US custody, and the number of people on board. He offered to review the information in his chambers or in a classified setting.

In separate declarations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem asserted that disclosing the data would compromise foreign relations and national security.

Rubio stated that the deportations followed “nonpublic, sensitive, and high stakes negotiation” with one or more foreign countries. Noem argued that revealing the data would “directly compromise” the safety of American personnel, contractors, and the public by exposing “critical means and methods of law enforcement operations.”

The government’s legal team, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, argued in court documents that the privilege claims by Rubio and Noem were “adequately supported and warranted” and that revealing the information, even in chambers, would cause “significant harm” to foreign relations and national security interests.

The Justice Department is fast-tracking this case, which involves the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, for review by the US Supreme Court as a rift widens between the judiciary and President Donald Trump over his use of executive power.

The dispute over flight data and the use of the Alien Enemies Act also reached a federal appeals court, where a three-judge panel appeared divided during a hearing on whether to lift Boasberg’s restraining order. The appeals court is currently weighing whether to continue blocking Trump’s invocation of the wartime statute, which has been used only three times in US history, to deport the alleged gang members.