(LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump has slammed as a “lunatic” an Obama-appointed judge who ordered a plane containing Venezuelan illegals, including suspected gang members, immediately flown back to the U.S. while in midair.
In a Wednesday interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Trump defended his call to impeach U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for ordering the Trump administration to halt its deportation of Venezuelan illegals under the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg ordered the illegal immigrants returned to the U.S. so that he could be granted more time to decide whether this particular use of the Alien Enemies Act, which has been used only three times in American history, is legal.
The Trump administration invoked the 1798 law in this case by declaring that the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, is “perpetrating” and “attempting” an “an invasion or predatory incursion against” the U.S.
Members of the gang carry out sex, drugs, and weapons trafficking in the U.S., and have committed murders, sexual assaults, and kidnappings of U.S. citizens. Tren de Aragua has been deemed responsible for the high-profile murders of nursing student Laken Riley, 22, and Jocelyn Nungaray, 12.
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Trump railed against Boasberg on Truth Social after the judge’s deportation ruling, writing on Tuesday, “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY.”
The president stressed to Ingraham on Wednesday that Boasberg “said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers … the worst people – gang members, gang leaders – that we shouldn’t be allowed to take them out of our country.”
“Well that’s a presidential job. That’s not for a local judge to be making that determination,” continued Trump.
He maintained that he “would not defy a court order” but added that “we have very bad judges. At a certain point, you have to start looking at [what to do] when you have a rogue judge.”