WASHINGTON:

A US judge said Wednesday he had found “probable cause” to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in contempt in a deportation case, raising the stakes in the White House’s confrontation with the justice system.

The White House said it planned an “immediate” appeal to the decision by District Judge James Boasberg, who had ordered the government to halt flights of more than 200 alleged gang Venezuelan members to El Salvador.

Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order of March 15 to halt the deportations, which were carried out under an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which strips away the usual legal due process.

In a written opinion, the judge cited evidence that the government had engaged in “deliberate or reckless disregard” of his order when it proceeded with the flights.

“Defendants provide no convincing reason to avoid the conclusion that appears obvious… that they deliberately flouted this Court’s written Order and, separately, its oral command that explicitly delineated what compliance entailed,” he wrote.

The administration’s actions were “sufficient for the court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt,” Boasberg wrote.

The judge said the government would be offered a final chance to “purge such contempt” or face further court action. Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has flirted with open defiance of the judiciary following setbacks to his right-wing agenda, with deportation cases taking center stage.

“We plan to seek immediate appellate relief,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement after the judge’s ruling.