Trump slams DC judge blocking gang member deportations as appeal hearing looms

President Donald Trump criticized a Washington, D.C., judge on social media for attempting to halt the deportation of Latin American gang members, as a federal appeals court prepares to hear the case next week.

Trump called the D.C. judge “almost as conflicted” as Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the New York “hush money” case against Trump last year.

As evidence, Trump cited a story from Just the News which chronicled a “junket” – an all-expenses-paid trip – by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who attended events featuring anti-Trump speakers prior to his recent ruling against Trump in the deportation cases.

Just the News reported that they were tipped off to the Boasberg junket by a retired Democrat judge who worried that the events skirted too close to the line that separates the judicial branch from party politics.

The Trump social media post comes as the administration is locked in a battle with Judge Boasberg over the deportation of illegal immigrants belonging to the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).

Boasberg is still seeking answers about how the Trump team avoided the judge’s temporary order to stop the deportation flights, reported the Associated Press (AP).  

Boasberg is seeking flight records and other details to decide if the administration willfully ignored his orders. 

The AP reports that the deportation flights were already in the air when Boasberg ordered the flights to return to the U.S.  

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time that the judge doesn’t have authority over military assets. 

“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,” said Leavitt. 

Later, the judge made permanent his order preventing the Trump administration from deporting TdA members without giving them the right to have it reviewed whether they are TdA members, or not, reported Newsweek. 

A three-judge panel on Monday will hear the Trump administration’s appeal of the order, which the Department of Justice is attacking on several fronts.  

In its written appeal, the government said that the president’s actions “are not subject to judicial review,” when invoking the Alien Enemies Act (AEA).  

The appeal said “extraordinary harm” to the presidential authority to declare national security threats such as invasions would ensue if the courts intervened in the case.  

“Courts have consistently held that the Executive’s determination of whether there is an ‘invasion’ is a nonjusticiable political question,” noted the government. 

The government also argued that the president has the sole right to negotiate foreign policy and that intervention by the courts into deportations under the AEA would violate the Article II powers of the president. 

“The injunction [by Boasberg] undermines longstanding deference to the Executive Branch’s national security judgments, including the President’s responsibility to identify and respond to threats posed by the TdA,” said the government’s brief. 

While legacy media has tried to portray the AEA as an ancient law, in fact, it was used in cases after World War II by Democrat President Harry Truman to justify the deportation of Germans.  

In a 1948 case, Ludecke v. Watkins, the Truman attorney general had determined an alien to be dangerous and he was thus deported by the president. 

The Supreme Court found in the case “The very nature of the President’s power to order the removal of all enemy aliens rejects the notion that courts may pass judgment upon the exercise of his discretion.” 

Still, Boasberg told the Department of Justice that he wants more information about the deportations, imposing a deadline of Tuesday to produce the records he’s demanded.  

The Trump administration continues to shrug its shoulders at the judge’s order, knowing that the appeals court will convene next week. 

In its previous reply, the government said, “[T]he district court is continuing to attempt to pry sensitive information from the Government. All of the district court’s orders should be stayed, and the Executive Branch’s standing as a coequal branch of Government should be respected.”  

The Washington, D.C., District Court is a broad front attacking Trump executive actions, with at least ten judges from the D.C. court who have blocked administration actions since his inauguration and another four judges from the nearby Maryland District Court joining “the resistance in robes,” according to a tally by Newsweek.   

That gives those two districts the most numbers of judges acting against Trump, at 14 total judges in the D.C. metro area, versus 12 judges who have ruled against the administration in the rest of the country.