Trump administration accuses judge of overstepping authority in Venezuela deportations dispute

Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing that Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was improperly intruding on presidential discretion to handle sensitive diplomatic and national security matters.

Boasberg has issued an order temporarily banning the administration from removing migrants from the United States under the 18th century law that Trump invoked in proceeding with the deportations. Trump invoked the law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to declare that the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua was conducting irregular warfare against the United States, subjecting its alleged members to deportation without a final order from an immigration judge, as generally required.

«The pending questions are grave encroachments on core aspects of absolute and unreviewable Executive Branch authority,» the Justice Department lawyers wrote.

The filing on Wednesday came a day after U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Trump for calling for the judge's impeachment.

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In blocking the deportations for two weeks on Saturday, Boasberg said the Alien Enemies Act did not provide a basis for Trump's assertion that Tren de Aragua's presence in the United States was akin to an act of war.

The Justice Department asked Boasberg to delay enforcement of his Tuesday order requiring them to submit more details — which would not be made public — about when exactly U.S. government planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to be deported to El Salvador took off and landed. The judge is seeking to determine if the administration defied his order against such flights, which was on the basis that