U.S. President Donald Trump is expanding the conflict between the executive and judicial branches over the expulsion of undocumented immigrants using the so-called "enemy nation citizens law."
After Trump administration officials, President Trump himself also expressed on the 18th (local time) that the judge who issued a "stay of deportation" order should be impeached, prompting the conservative chief justice to release a statement rebutting the claim as inappropriate.
On this day, President Trump targeted the federal judge who ordered a temporary halt to the deportation of undocumented immigrants using the "enemy nation citizens law," stating, "The radical left lunatic judge was not elected president," and adding, "He should be impeached."
President Trump said, "He did not win a majority of the votes in the general election and did not win in seven battleground states," adding, "I won for various reasons, but the fight against illegal immigration is the first reason for this historic victory."
He stated, "I am doing what the voters want," and emphasized, "We do not want an evil, violent, and crazy criminal to be in America."
President Trump's remarks on "impeaching judges" come amid criticism that the Trump administration is blatantly ignoring the federal court's stay order on deportations, causing a constitutional crisis.
There is an expectation that the controversy will further escalate, as it is a claim that he can disregard judicial decisions because he won the presidential election.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement on this day, noting, "For more than 200 years, impeaching judges has been shown not to be an appropriate response to differences of opinion regarding judicial decisions," adding, "There are standard appeal processes for that purpose."
Appointed during President George W. Bush's administration, Chief Justice Roberts is classified as a conservative among the nine federal justices.
During the first term of the Trump administration in 2018, when then-President Trump criticized a judge for rejecting his immigration policies as an "Obama appointee," Roberts rebuffed, saying, "There are no Obama judges or Trump judges."
Impeachment of a federal judge requires a majority approval from the House of Representatives and two-thirds support from the Senate, making it impossible for the Republican Party to unilaterally impeach a judge. According to the Associated Press, impeachment proceedings have been initiated against 15 judges in U.S. history, with only 8 actually being impeached.
Earlier, the Trump administration deported over 260 immigrants to El Salvador on the 15th. In response, Federal Judge James Boasberg issued a stay order on the same day, but the Trump administration is facing criticism for ignoring this and proceeding with the deportations.
However, despite this controversy, the Trump administration declared, "I do not care what the judges or the left think" and affirmed its commitment to enforcing deportations. The Department of Justice of the Trump administration sent a letter the previous day requesting that Judge Boasberg be excluded from the case.
The Department of Justice reportedly informed the court through documents submitted the night before that Trump's enemy nation citizens law is not subject to judicial review, and requested Judge Boasberg to lift the stay order, according to the New York Times (NYT) and others.