White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday doubled down on the administration’s criticism of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, arguing he had overstepped his legal authority in trying to block deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants.
“It’s very, very clear that this is an activist judge trying to usurp the president’s authority under the Alien Enemies Act. The president has this power, and that’s why this deportation campaign has continued,” Leavitt said in a White House press briefing. “Judge Boasberg is a Democrat activist.”
Boasberg, a district judge appointed by George W. Bush and then promoted by Barack Obama, temporarily blocked deportations of Venezuelan migrants the administration has claimed are gang members to El Salvador over the weekend. To carry out the deportations, President Donald Trump employed the Alien Enemies Act, a little used war-time authority. Boasberg ordered the deportations to stop — and for any planes in the air to return — while the court considered the use and reach of the act. But 250 deportees wound up in El Salvadoran custody anyway.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY.”
The White House is not the only source of criticism for Boasberg — Republican lawmakers are signing on to long-shot articles of impeachment, alleging the judge has “compromised the impartiality of the judiciary, and created a constitutional crisis.”
Leavitt said judges halting various executive actions “are trying to block, delay and impede. This is lawfare. The President is no stranger to it. He faced it in his campaign, and this is a continuation of the lawfare that President Trump faced as a candidate, and he’s now unfortunately facing as a president.”
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts pushed back against the impeachment calls in a short and rare statement Tuesday.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said.
Leavitt said it was clear that Trump has “great respect” for Roberts but thinks Boasberg should be impeached.
“It’s incumbent upon the Supreme Court to rein in these activist judges,” she said.
The White House has denied that it had violated the court order, and Leavitt said earlier this week that Boasberg “had no lawful basis” for his order, arguing that the written order was issued after the migrants “had already been removed from U.S. territory.”
“The judge in this case is essentially trying to say that the president doesn’t have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists from our American soil. That is an egregious abuse of the bench. This judge does not have that authority. It is the opinion of this White House and of this administration. That’s why we’re fighting this in court,” Leavitt told reporters Wednesday.
One major outstanding question is the timing of the planes, which Boasberg has demanded the administration explain given questions around at least one flight taking off after the order was issued.
“It was the president himself who directed the planes stay in the air after the judge ordered them to turn back. The president invoked the Aliens Enemies Act with a proclamation,” Leavitt said.
The White House has yet to release certain identifying details of the deportees, which Leavitt said was due to the administration refusing to “reveal operational details about a counterterrorism operation.”
Asked how the president defines a “bad” judge, Leavitt denied that it had anything to do with policy disagreements.
“It’s with disagreeing with the Constitution and the law, and it’s trying to usurp the authority of the executive branch of this country. It’s having baseless reasoning for these injunctions, and it’s a clear effort by these judges to slow roll this president’s agenda.”
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Nuha Dolby is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.