John Roberts, Supreme Court Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court during his 60th Presidential inauguration on January 20, 2025.
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Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked President Donald Trump after demanding a federal judge’s ammo for issuing an order that hinders Trump’s plan to deport suspects from the United States.
“For over two centuries, it has been established that each is not an appropriate response to differences in opinion over judicial decisions,” Roberts said in a statement on Trump’s demands.
“For that purpose, there is a normal appeal review process,” Roberts wrote that Trump wrote, hours after the truth social, Prime Minister James Boasberg “should be fired up each, as I am forced to appear before.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Roberts’ statement.
Boasberg governs a lawsuit challenging the deportation of federal courts in Washington, D.C. The Trump administration has argued that rescue of suspected Tren de Aragua gangs is approved under wartime alien enemy law.
Boasberg issued two orders on Saturday banning Trump from deported foreigners detained in immigration lawsuits allegedly related to TDA, which the US designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
During a hearing Monday, Boasberg pressed Justice Department lawyers on whether the administration violated Boasberg’s orders.
The DOJ lawyers refused to answer many of these questions, citing national security concerns. Boasberg later told the DOJ to submit answers to his questions by Tuesday.
The DOJ asked the DC Federal Court of Appeals to remove Boasberg from the case, and Boasberg asked directly to leave his order.
The court’s DOJ filed Monday said Boasberg “has lacked jurisdiction as the presidential lawsuit they challenge is not subject to judicial review.” The same filing challenged Boasberg’s authority to order DOJ lawyers to produce information on the deportation of hundreds of TDA members into Central America over the weekend.
Trump was furious in his true social post, “This radical ‘this radical ‘this radical leave, sadly appointed troublemakers and agitators by Barack Hussein Obama were not elected president.”
“He didn’t win the popularity vote (too much!), he didn’t win all seven swing states, and he didn’t win 2,750 to 525 counties,” Trump wrote, noting his own achievements in these benchmarks in the 2024 election. “He won nothing!”
Boasberg was appointed to a federal court seat in 2011 by former Democrat Obama. However, he was appointed to the District of Columbia Superior Court by former Republican President George W. Bush, as previously Trump.
On Monday, March 13, 2023, James Boasberg, the incoming judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, USA.
Valerie Plesch | Bloomberg | Getty Images
On Tuesday, US immigration and customs enforcement officials revealed that one of three planes carrying gang members departed the US for El Salvador on Saturday night after Boasburg issued an order ordered to deportation.
“However, all individuals on that third plane had a final removal order for Title 8, and therefore were not removed based on the declaration in question,” the declaration stated.
“To avoid doubt, none of the flights departing the US after the 7:25pm EDT on March 15, 2025, was removed based on the declaration of the matter.”
The filing also stated that around 54 suspected members of the Venezuelan gang are currently in custody, with around 172 suspected members being affiliated with the undecided docket, with about 32 people detaining active detainees against them.
“If they are transferred to ice custody, they will likely be placed in removal proceedings,” the submission said.
Critics of Trump’s deportation efforts have questioned how his administration decided who was a member of the gang.
In a declaration filed in court Monday, the representative field office director of the US immigration and customs enforcement and removal operations wrote that “each alien was carefully vetted to ensure that agency staff were in fact members of the TDA.”
“It is important to quickly remove TDA members who are subject to the (deportation) declaration,” wrote Acting Director Robert Cerna.
“Staying them during ice detention, where we could continue to potentially recruit new TDA members, poses a significant risk to ice personnel.
“It is irresponsible that there is an immediate mechanism to remove hundreds of members of designated foreign terrorist organizations.”
“It is true that many of the TDA members who were deleted under the AEA have no criminal history in the US, but that’s because they only had a short time in the US,” Cerna wrote.
“The lack of criminal history does not indicate that they pose limited threats. In fact, the lack of specific information about each individual, based on their relationship with the TDA, actually highlights the risks they pose.
