{"id":40332,"date":"2025-03-17T12:30:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=40332"},"modified":"2025-03-17T12:30:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:30:51","slug":"gop-congressman-wants-to-impeach-judge-behind-alien-enemies-order-trump-defied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/17\/gop-congressman-wants-to-impeach-judge-behind-alien-enemies-order-trump-defied\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Congressman Wants to Impeach Judge Behind ‘Alien Enemies’ Order Trump Defied"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Judge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

James Boasberg, who took over as chief judge of the district court in Washington, D.C., poses for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse on March 16, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Carolyn Van Houten\/The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The U.S. continues its racist slide toward authoritarian practices,” Amnesty International USA said of the administration ignoring the court decision.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar 16, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of elected Republicans and billionaires’ assault on the federal judiciary, a GOP congressman on Saturday night pledged to file articles of impeachment against a chief judge who issued an order against U.S. President Donald Trump’s invocation of an 18th-century wartime power\u2014a court decision that the administration intentionally ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a post<\/a> on X\u2014the social media platform owned by Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk\u2014Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) shared the New York Post<\/em>‘s coverage of the Saturday court order and said, “I’ll be filing articles of impeachment against activist Judge James Boasberg this week.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gill’s post garnered support from multiple other Republicans in the House of Representatives as well as Musk<\/a>, who has endorsed<\/a> GOP lawmakers’ previous efforts<\/a> to impeach other federal judges who have ruled against his and Trump’s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boasberg on Saturday issued<\/a> a nationwide temporary restraining order in response to legal groups challenging Trump’s attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for deportations. The judge, who was appointed to the district court in Washington, D.C. by former President Barack Obama, ordered any planes in the air to turn around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, “the Trump<\/a> administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn’t apply,” Axios<\/em>reported<\/a> Sunday, citing two senior officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While leading legal groups argue that Trump’s attempted use of the law\u2014previously invoked to send thousands of people to internment camps during World War II\u2014is illegal, a senior White House official told Axios<\/em>: “This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we’re going to win.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/Steven_Strauss\/status\/1901368211360071974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1901368211360071974%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Falien-enemies-act<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axios<\/em>‘ reporting came after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s signaled early Sunday on X that despite Boasberg’s order, hundreds of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were sent to El Salvador\u2014which the Trump administration will pay $6 million a year to imprison them, according to<\/a>The Associated Press<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also sharing the Post<\/em> reporting on Boasberg’s order, Bukele wrote<\/a>, “Oopsie\u2026 Too late,” with an emoji crying from laughing. Separately, the Salvadoran leader posted a video of the prisoners’ arrival\u2014which Rubio responded to, saying<\/a>, “Thank you for your assistance and friendship, President Bukele.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bukele and Rubio noted that the Trump administration also sent to El Salvador over 20 alleged members of the gang MS-13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/ReichlinMelnick\/status\/1901098329880031409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1901098329880031409%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Falien-enemies-act<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration’s defiance of the judge’s directive sparked fresh warnings about what lies ahead. Amnesty International<\/a> USA said<\/a> Sunday on X that “the United States is defying a court order in order to accelerate the complete erosion of human rights for Venezuelans seeking safety.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is yet another example of the Trump administration’s racist targeting, detaining, and deporting of Venezuelans\u2014many of whom haven’t even been ordered deported\u2014based on sweeping claims of gang affiliation,” the human rights group added. “The U.S. continues its racist slide toward authoritarian practices.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the defiance this weekend, the pro-democracy group Free Speech for People argued<\/a> that the administration’s recent “oversteps of the judiciary branch” provide new grounds for Congress to launch another impeachment investigation in the twice-impeached president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump went into the weekend doubling down on his attacks on the judicial system with Friday remarks at the U.S. Department of Justice that\u00a0triggered<\/a>\u00a0widespread alarm. ACLU executive director Anthony Romero\u2014whose group is involved in the challenge against the 1798 law\u2014said in a statement about the president’s speech that “it’s increasingly clear that we’re entering a modern McCarthy moment. When the government is targeting a former ambassador, a\u00a0legal permanent resident<\/a>,\u00a0law firms<\/a>, and even universities and treating them like enemies of the state, it is a dark day for American democracy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Boasberg, who took over as chief judge of the district court in Washington, D.C., poses for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse on March 16, 2023. \u00a0(Photo: Carolyn Van Houten\/The Washington Post via Getty Images) “The U.S. continues its racist slide toward authoritarian practices,” Amnesty International USA… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40333,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40332\/revisions\/40333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}