Trump assails judge who blocked deportations as the case heads to appeal

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday questioned the impartiality of the federal judge who blocked his plans to deport Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, leveling his criticism only hours before his administration will ask an appeals court to lift the judge’s order.

Just after midnight, Trump posted a social media message calling for Chief Judge James Boasberg to be disbarred. Trump reposted an article about Boasberg’s attendance at a legal conference that purportedly featured “anti-Trump speakers.”

The judge, meanwhile, refused Monday to throw out his original order before an appeals court hearing for the case. Boasberg ruled that the immigrants facing deportation must get an opportunity to challenge their designations as alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang. He said there is “a strong public interest in preventing the mistaken deportation of people based on categories they have no right to challenge.”

“The public also has a significant stake in the Government’s compliance with the law,” the judge wrote.

Boasberg didn’t immediately decide what form a challenge should take.

The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law that hadn’t been invoked since World War II. Flights already were in the air on March 15 when Boasberg agreed to bar the deportations temporarily and ordered planes to return to the U.S. with the deportees. That did not happen.

The administration appealed the order. On Monday afternoon, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is scheduled to hear attorneys’ arguments.

The Alien Enemies Act allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge. Trump issued a proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.

Government attorneys argued in a court filing that Boasberg’s order was an “unprecedented intrusion upon the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens who pose grave threats to the American people.”

“And even if reviewable, the President’s action is lawful and based upon a long history of using war authorities against organizations connected to foreign states and national security judgments, which are not subject to judicial second guessing,” they wrote.