In a Friday night hearing, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said he was “sympathetic” to activists’ concerns over the Trump administration’s deportation of illegal aliens under the Alien Enemies Act, but he doesn’t “think I have the power” to stop them.
It was surely frustrating to the activist judge who always seemed to rule harshly against J6ers but has come across as extremely sympathetic to the non-citizen criminals that Trump was trying to send out of our country. A recent Supreme Court ruling tied his hands, however:
US District Judge James Boasberg denied an emergency request from lawyers for alleged Venezuelan gang members… seeking to block “imminent” deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing suspected Tren de Aragua gang members being detained in Texas, had asked Boasberg to issue a temporary restraining order requiring 30 days’ notice from the Trump administration before any of their clients are deported under the 18th-century law after learning the removal notices had recently been issued to detainees.
“I’m sympathetic to your conundrum, but I don’t think I have the power to do anything about it,” Boasberg said during an emergency hearing in the District Court for Washington, DC.
The judge noted that a Supreme Court ruling earlier this month, which lifted his pause on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, determined that if “detainees are confined in Texas … venue is improper in the District of Columbia.”
He just noted that he didn’t have jurisdiction, because of where the detainees were being held. Judges do indeed have the power to stop Trump, but for that particular case the judge would have had to be in the district covering the detention center in Texas.
Not according to SCOTUS!