A federal judge is trying to interfere with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and the Justice Department isn’t having it.
This could become the start of one of the Trump administration’s most significant legal battles.
The Justice Department has rebuffed U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s request for more information about the recent flights that took Venezuelan illegal immigrants to El Salvador on Saturday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The Justice Department is resisting a federal judge’s demand for more information about flights that took deportees to El Salvador, arguing on Wednesday that the court should end its “continued intrusions” into the authority of the executive branch.
It’s the latest development in a showdown between the Trump administration and the judge who temporarily blocked deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration. President Donald Trump has called for the judge’s impeachment as the Republican escalates his conflict with a judiciary after a series of court setbacks over his executive actions.
U.S. District Judge Jeb Boasberg, who was nominated to the federal bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, had ordered the Trump administration to answer several questions under seal, where the information would not be publicly exposed. There were questions about the planes’ takeoff and landing times, and the number of people deported under Trump’s proclamation.
The judge has questioned whether the Trump administration ignored his court order on Saturday to turn around planes with deportees headed for the Central American country, which had agreed to house them in a notorious prison.
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The Justice Department filed papers on Wednesday arguing that the judge’s inquiries are “grave encroachments on core aspects of absolute and unreviewable Executive Branch authority relating to national security, foreign relations and foreign policy.”
The agency indicated that it might invoke “state secrets privilege” to avoid sharing this information with the court.
“The underlying premise of these orders … is that the Judicial Branch is superior to the Executive Branch, particularly on non-legal matters involving foreign affairs and national security. The Government disagrees,” Justice Department lawyers wrote. “The two branches are co-equal, and the Court’s continued intrusions into the prerogatives of the Executive Branch, especially on a non-legal and factually irrelevant matter, should end.”
President Trump excoriated the judge in a post on Truth Social in which he called Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic” and a “troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama.”
Trump’s decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act has caused a stir in the national conversation on immigration. The law, passed in the 18th century, allows the president to detain or deport immigrants from countries at war with the United States without due process or judicial proceedings.
The judge issued a ruling ordering the administration to curtail the deportation efforts, but the plane was already in the air. Now, the illegals, many of whom are suspected members of the Tren de Aragua gang, are being housed in a maximum security facility in El Salvador.
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