Tension between Trump and chief justice over judge who suspended immigrant deportations

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for the removal of the judge who ordered the suspension of the deportation of immigrants under the "Alien Enemies Act." The president's remarks drew an unusual rebuke from the chief justice in response.

"This judge, like many of the corrupt judges before whom I am forced to appear, should be impeached!" the Republican stated in his platform Truth Social.

The "radical left-wing lunatic troublemaker and agitator, sadly appointed by (former Democratic President) Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected president," Trump stressed, referring to Washington federal judge James Boasberg.

"I'm just doing what the voters wanted me to do" because "the fight against illegal immigration may have been the number one reason" for the November election victory, the president wrote using capital letters on the digital platform.

Boasberg ordered to suspend the deportation of immigrants for 14 days

On Saturday, Judge Boasberg ordered a 14-day stay on the removal of immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, activated by Trump against the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. So far, it had only been used three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.

The judge specifically asked to halt an operation to relocate to El Salvador more than 200 immigrants whom the US government accuses of belonging to the Tren de Aragua and M-13 gang, both recently declared global "terrorist" organizations by the State Department.

The administration went ahead with the deportations. Officials argued that the deportees had already departed the US by the time the written order prohibiting it was issued, and that the magistrate lacks jurisdiction once the planes have left US airspace.

These arguments did not convince Judge Boasberg, who, according to The Telegraph and other media, asked the government for a response Tuesday. The Justice Department responded that "the government cannot, and will not, be compelled to answer sensitive national security questions."

Supreme Court reprimand

It is not the first time Donald Trump has clashed with the judiciary, but now he has taken it a step further by directly calling for the removal of a judge, which has earned him a reprimand from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts.

"It has been established for more than two centuries that impeachment is not an appropriate response to a disagreement over a judicial decision," the top lawmaker said in a statement.

The process of impeaching a justice is up to Congress and in a very politically polarized country it is highly unlikely that it will happen.

Judge James Boasberg and his clashes with Trump

This is not the first time Boasberg, 62, has clashed with the president over immigration and other environmental and citizenship issues.

In March 2020, the judge urged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release immigrants held in detention centers during the Covid pandemic, citing the imminent risk of an outbreak during confinement.

The same judge angered conservatives years earlier by blocking Arkansas and Kentucky from imposing a work requirement for Medicaid beneficiaries.

James Boasberg also previously sided with conservationists by demanding that the Army Corps of Engineers conduct an environmental review of the Dakota Access pipeline.

He is equally remembered for backing activists who wanted to protect the endangered right whale from the threat they claimed was posed by the lobster fishing industry.

Yet the same judge who now tried to block Trump's deportation of 200 alleged Venezuelan criminals previously freed a Russiagate lawyer from jail.

Boasberg was the one who spared former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith from prison after he was convicted of forgery during the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump: 'We don't want criminals'

"We do not want ruthless, violent and insane criminals, many of them deranged murderers, in our country," the US president stressed Tuesday.

In his battle against irregular immigration he has gained support, such as that of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

Washington paid him "approximately six million dollars" to detain the expelled immigrants, confirmed White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, a pittance according to her, "compared to the cost of living it would cost the US taxpayer to house these terrorists in maximum security prisons" in the United States.

According to official media, 238 alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang arrived in El Salvador and were transferred to the dreaded Confinement Center for Terrorism (Cecot).

What is the Alien Enemies Act?

The Alien Enemies Act, created in 1798, gives the US president the powers to detain and deport foreigners in the event of declared war or an "invasion" or "predatory incursion," according to the independent US magazine Just Security.

Specifically, the law allows it to prosecute all "natives, citizens, residents or subjects" of the hostile nation or government, explains the medium specialized in US politics and justice.

It also indicates that the resource does not distinguish between foreigners who are regularized in the United States and foreigners with established legal status, nor between "loyal and disloyal" aliens.