It Is Happening Every Day, Every Where
To President Trump, Judge James E. Boasberg is “a troublemaker” and a “Radical Left Lunatic.” But his record and biography, including a friendship with Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, say otherwise.
Lawyers for Venezuelan migrants asked the justices to keep in place a pause on President Trump’s deportation plan, calling it “completely at odds” with limited wartime authority given by Congress.
By citing the act, the administration seems to be highlighting its aggressive posture without taking steps that might be deemed to violate a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge.
Judge James E. Boasberg’s order says that the Venezuelan immigrants should have the opportunity to challenge the accusation by the Trump administration that they are members of a gang.
Before the current Trump administration, the law had been invoked just three times.
To invoke wartime deportation powers, President Trump asserted that Venezuela’s government controls a gang. U.S. intelligence analysts think that is not true.
Officials have said most of the people sent to the U.S. base are members of a Venezuelan gang but have not offered evidence to support that claim.
The question of whether the deported Venezuelans actually have ties to Tren de Aragua could be raised at a hearing set for Friday in Federal District Court in Washington.
Legal scholars say that the nation has reached a tipping point and that the right question is not whether there is a crisis, but rather how much damage it will cause.
In asking the judge to dissolve a temporary restraining order on deportation flights, the Justice Department opened another front in its aggressive pushback to his decisions.