Washington DC - A US federal judge ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump's administration must allow over a hundred Venezuelans deported under an obscure wartime law to challenge accusations they are violent gang members.

In a highly critical opinion, District Judge James Boasberg said the US government "must facilitate" the migrants' ability to contest their removal, without specifying what actions that would entail.

Boasberg is one of several judges who has drawn Trump's ire for curtailing his efforts to wield broad executive power, after ruling against the initial migrant deportation flights.

In March, the Trump administration invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport hundreds Venezuelan migrants by alleging they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, expelling them to a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador.

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Tren de Aragua has been designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the Trump administration, but attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said their clients were not gang members, had committed no crimes, and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.

The Trump administration went ahead with the initial deportations of the alleged Tren de Aragua members under the AEA in March despite a restraining order from Boasberg blocking the move.

Angered by Boasberg's ruling, Trump called in March for his impeachment.

The US Supreme Court in May then blocked further deportations under the AEA, saying the deported migrants were not being given enough time to legally contest their removal.

Three federal district court judges have ruled that Trump's use of the AEA to carry out deportations was unconstitutional, while one, a Trump appointee, said it was permissible.

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Boasberg on Wednesday offered no ruling on the legality of using the AEA to deport migrants, and acknowledged the possibility the deported people could be gang members.

"But – and this is the critical point – there is simply no way to know for sure as (they) never had any opportunity to challenge the Government's say-so," he wrote in the filing.

Boasberg opened his ruling by comparing the treatment of the Venezuelans facing deportation to the main character of The Trial by Franz Kafka.

The government "must facilitate" the deported people's ability to contest their removal, the judge said, adding that "exactly what such facilitation must entail will be determined in future proceedings."

The Trump administration has claimed that it doesn't have the power to bring back the deported migrants, raising fears that its defiance of federal court orders was placing the country on the cusp of a constitutional crisis.