White House vows to continue mass deportations

The White House vowed to continue mass deportations, claiming that ‘activist judges’ were usurping the President’s authority after Donald Trump was reprimanded by the US Chief Justice.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters. Picture: AFP.

The Trump administration is doubling down on its attack against the judicial arm of the US government for opposing its political agenda, accusing the top judge in Washington of trying to “usurp the President’s authority” and pressuring the Supreme Court to “rein in these activist judges.”

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt argued that judges in America were “acting erroneously,” conducting themselves as if they were “partisan activists from the bench” and warning they were seeking “to dictate policy.”

She made the comments one day after US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned it was not appropriate to call for the impeachment of a judge because of a disagreement over a judicial decision.

This was a slap-down directed at Donald Trump after the US President called for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg of the district court in Washington who had ordered the administration to produce detailed information over the deportation of foreign gang members to El Salvador on Saturday.

Judge Boasberg is seeking the information to determine whether the administration deliberately flouted his verbal order issued on Saturday for any planes deporting foreign gang members under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to be turned back to America.

While the administration denies any failure to comply with the court, Judge Boasberg granted it a further 24 hour extension on Wednesday (local time) to provide the information he had requested.

The seven page motion filed with the court seeking the extension, submitted by Attorney-General Pam Bondi, warned that what had began as a legal dispute over the President’s authority had now “devolved into a picayune dispute over the micromanagement of immaterial fact-finding.”

Judge Boasberg’s order for information was based on the assumption that “the Judicial Branch is superior to the Executive Branch, particularly on nonlegal matters involving foreign affairs and national security.”

In its motion for a stay order, the administration warned the court was seeking information that had “no bearing on any legal issue at stake in the case.”

“Continuing to beat a dead horse solely for the sake of prying from the government legally immaterial facts and wholly within a sphere of core functions of the Executive Branch is both purposeless and frustrating to the consideration of the actual legal issues at stake in this case,” it said.

“Disclosure of the information sought could implicate the affairs of United States allies and their co-operation with the United States Government in fighting terrorist organisations. Such disclosure would unquestionably create serious repercussions for the Executive Branch’s

ability to conduct foreign affairs.”

The administration also said it needed extra time to consider whether or not to invoke the “state secrets privilege as to portions of the information sought by this Court’s order.”

In his order granting an extension, Judge Boasberg made clear the court was seeking the requested information, not as a “micromanaged and unnecessary judicial fishing expedition,” but to determine if the government had “deliberately flouted” its orders.

“The Government’s Motion is the first time it has suggested that disclosing the information requested by the Court could amount to the release of state secrets,” Judge Boasberg said. “To date, in fact, the Government has made no claim that the information at issue is even classified.”

He granted the government an additional 24 hours to consider “whether to invoke the state-secrets privilege” but - if invoked - made clear that the court was obligated to “determine whether the circumstances are appropriate for the claim of privilege.”

In her White House briefing, Ms Leavitt said that Americans could “absolutely expect to see the continuation of the mass deportation campaign” but clarified the administration would “continue to comply with these court orders.”

“I would just like to point out that 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,” she said. “That is an egregious abuse of the bench ... That’s why we’re fighting this in court.”

“It’s very, very clear that this is an activist judge who is 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,” she said. “Judge Boasberg is a Democrat activist. He was appointed by Barack Obama. His wife has donated more than $10,000 to Democrats. And he has consistently shown his disdain for this President and his policies.”

Posting to his Truth Social platform said that, if a President did not have the right to “throw murderers, and other criminals, our of our Country ... then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!”