“The pending questions are grave encroachments on core aspects of absolute and unreviewable Executive Branch authority,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote.
ALSO READ: Putin and Trump have mutual trust and seek to normalise relations, Kremlin saysThe filing escalates a dispute that has prompted concern that Trump is further pushing the boundaries of executive power at the expense of the federal judiciary, which under the US Constitution is a co-equal branch of the American government. Trump critics and some legal experts have expressed concern over a potentially looming constitutional crisis if his administration openly defies judicial decisions.
Trump in a social media post on Tuesday called for Boasberg’s impeachment in a congressional process that could lead to removal, describing the judge as a far-left “troublemaker and agitator.” Boasberg was appointed to the bench by Democratic former President Barack Obama.
The president’s comments prompted a rare statement from Roberts, who is a member of the US Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority. Roberts said appeals of judicial rulings, not impeachment, were the appropriate response to disagreeing with a judge’s decision.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department asked Boasberg to delay enforcement of his Tuesday order requiring them to submit more details – which would not be made public – about when exactly US government planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to be deported to El Salvador took off and landed. The judge is seeking to determine if the administration defied his order against such flights on the basis that the administration was overstepping its authority.The Justice Department said in the filing that providing the judge with additional details would undermine the executive branch’s ability to negotiate with other countries, citing “a serious risk of micromanaged and unnecessary judicial fishing expeditions.”
Boasberg’s chambers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday accused the judge of “an intrusion on the president’s authority” and said in an interview on Fox News that Boasberg “thinks he can control foreign policy for the entire country and he cannot.”
Boasberg on Saturday imposed a two-week halt to deportations under Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Trump declared that the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua was conducting irregular warfare against the United States, subjecting its alleged members to deportation without a final order from an immigration judge, as generally required.
Three planes went on to land in El Salvador, where the deportees are being held under an agreement with Trump-aligned President Nayib Bukele’s government because Venezuela’s socialist government, a longtime US adversary, is not accepting deportation flights.
The Trump administration has said one of the planes carried only migrants who had final removal orders from immigration judges, meaning they were not being deported subject to the Alien Enemies Act alone.
The Justice Department lawyers said on Tuesday the other two planes had left US airspace before Boasberg’s written order was issued – indicating they were beyond the judge’s jurisdictional reach – and said his earlier spoken orders in court about having the planes turn back if necessary were not enforceable.
ALSO READ: Trump deports migrants under wartime law, sends them to El Salvador’s mega-prison
