Liberal Judge James Boasberg has ruled that illegal immigrants belonging to the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang can challenge their deportation under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
The Trump administration had requested the activist judge to vacate his restraining order that barred the removal of the Venezuelan gangbangers under the wartime security law. The legal challenge stemmed from the deportation of 261 illegal aliens, including Tren de Aragua gang members, to El Salvador, a Central American country that has set a shining example in dealing with gang violence.
The law allows the president to summarily remove “natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects” of a “hostile nation or government” during a “declared war” or when the adversary has “perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States” or during an “invasion or predatory incursion.”
Trump has repeatedly described the flocking of unvetted and undocumented foreign nationals, some with terrorist and gang ties, as an invasion, justifying the invocation of the national security measure. The Trump administration has already declared Mexican cartels that are responsible for trafficking immigrants across the border as terrorist groups.
Although Judge Boasberg did not challenge the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, he ruled that the violent Venezuelan illegal immigrants had grounds to challenge the national security law individually.
“Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on equal fundamental theory: before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all,” the judge ruled. “As the government itself concedes, the awesome power granted by the Act may be brought only to bear on those who are in fact, ‘alien enemies.’”
The ruling added that the courts had the authority to determine if the subjects of detention or deportation designated as “alien enemies” fit that designation.
“Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge,” the ruling stated.
While the Trump administration will likely appeal the decision, Judge Boasberg’s ruling sets a dangerous precedent. The liberal judge’s guidance ensures that the cases of the Tren de Aragua and other gang members would take years or decades to be heard, thus clogging the court system. The long wait times would inadvertently allow violent criminals to remain on US soil and to continue terrorizing Americans as they wait for an indeterminate court date.
Responding to Boasberg’s ruling, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller described the ruling as “flagrantly unconstitutional.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has threatened to invoke the State Secrets Privilege Act to withhold information from the court system as a matter of national security. The law permits the government to block certain information from discovery in a lawsuit if disclosing that information “would adversely affect national security.
The Trump administration also warned that the courts’ interference in executive decisions undermined the separation of powers, threatening international diplomacy and national security.
“The Court has all of the facts it needs to address the compliance issues before it,” the Justice Department stated, adding that “Further intrusions on the Executive Branch would present dangerous and wholly unwarranted separation-of-powers harms with respect to diplomatic and national security concerns that the Court lacks competence to address.”
Previously, the President of El Salvador, who agreed to accept the gang members, had warned that the United States was experiencing a judicial coup.
Meanwhile, another unhinged liberal judge, Patricia Millett said “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act” that the Tren de Aragua gang members.
Republican Congressman Jim Jordan has also announced that the House Judiciary Committee would grill Judge Boasberg over his seemingly politically-motivated rulings.
That arrogant fool has definitely overstepped his bounds. The Trump administration should flout his highly questionable authority and investigate him. Dig up all the dirt on that clown.
The leftist plotting him on the FedBench 2002 was GWB! Disclaimer: Have loved America 80 years; never voted for lefty gwb. DID VOT FOR RONNY 9 TIMES AS HE LOVES AMERICA.
GWB’s toady may have kept Boasberg around but had GWB not put him on the bench ….