It’s the story that’s been dominating the headlines—President Donald Trump has been delivering on his campaign promises and has virtually shut down the porous southern border that Joe Biden left in his wake, and now he’s removing violent criminal gangbangers from our country.
But just like with virtually every move the commander in chief makes these days, an activist judge quickly jumped in to slap on a restraining order, and his command that the administration turn the planes carrying hundreds of Tren de Aragua gangsters around was ignored by Team Trump.
There will be plenty of lawfare to come on this one. Attorney General Pam Bondi has already appealed U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s dictates, and the administration on Monday filed a fiery brief with the court asking for the jurist to step away from the case because of his obvious bias.
Report: The Reason Why WH Ignored Judge's Order Requiring Planeload of Gangbangers to Turn Around
But who is this guy, Judge Boasberg? Is he a leftwing activist, or is he doing his duty to protect the rule of law? We’ve seen repeatedly in the all the lawfare cases against Trump over the years that many of these so-called neutral minds have biases that seem to color their decisions—remember NY Judge Juan Merchan, who seemingly ruled against Trump at every turn in the silly falsified business records case and who had a far-left daughter who was allegedly fundraising off the proceedings?
And let’s not forget U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Tanya Chutkan, who presided over the federal election interference case, and also seemed to have Trump Derangement Syndrome in her veins.
Here’s some of what we know about Boasberg. Turns out, he has a history of this sort of thing:
The federal judge who tried to block President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts has a history of stonewalling Trump’s immigration policies and spared one of the FBI officials behind the Russiagate hoax from prison.
United States District Judge James Boasberg placed a 14-day restraining order on Trump’s effort to rapidly deport criminal illegal aliens associated with Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang and foreign terror organization, prompting public outcry and igniting an effort to impeach him from his seat.
Boasberg, an Obama appointee, hindered Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts in 2018 with a ruling that limited the administration’s ability to detain migrant families who had entered the country.
As RedState editor Jennifer Van Laar reported Monday, many legal minds think Boasberg is way out over his skis on this one:
Stephen Miller takes apart CNN's talking points on Judge Boasberg's "immigration" order:
— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) March 17, 2025
"That is not something a district court judge has any authority whatsoever to interfere with, to enjoin, to restrict or to restrain in any way."pic.twitter.com/KNwQpiI43P
Related: Stephen Miller Obliterates CNN Anchor's Line of Questioning on Tren de Aragua Deportations
The judge’s record is, shall we say, not good:
The judge’s ruling took aim at five Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, preventing them from categorically denying parole to foreign nationals and effectively instructing the administration to release a greater number of migrants into the interior of the country. The ruling undermined the administration’s attempt to discourage border crossings by detaining migrants rather than by rewarding them with release into the United States.
In another widely-publicized ruling, Boasberg showed leniency to FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, the only person charged in connection with the probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign. Clinesmith admitted that he altered an email to an FBI agent that was used to support a surveillance application against the Trump campaign. Carter Page, an advisor for the Trump campaign, was incorrectly labeled as “not a source” for the CIA in the email, a move which heightened suspicions of the campaign.
And of course, just like Merchan, there’s potential conflict of interest at play here:
Boasberg’s wife, Elizabeth Manson, has also been involved in partisan political activity and even donated over $11,000 to Democratic candidates, federal data shows. Manson gave a combined $3,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund and Hillary for America when the Democratic candidate was facing off against Trump in the 2016 election.
We will not stand by as radical activist Judge James Boasberg tramples on the Constitution out of political spite for the President.
— Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) March 17, 2025
The American people gave us a mandate to get criminal illegal aliens out of our country, and that’s exactly what we intend to do. pic.twitter.com/9f4yhIqJRg
Let’s just cut to the chase here: activist judges across the nation have seemingly made it their personal mission to thwart Donald Trump and his agenda and dictate the future of this country. Unfortunately for them, that’s not how it works: they are supposed to decide on issues based on the Constitution and case law, and not work to impede the duties of the commander-in-chief. Many of them seem to have developed a Napoleon complex where they believe they will decide how things proceed, based on their own personal preferences.
Expect plenty of this nonsense to continue as Trump lays down his agenda. Some of it will inevitably end up before the Supreme Court, and we need the Justices—and especially Chief Justice John Roberts—to put an end to some of these juvenile antics.
The president is in fact the president, as defined by the Constitution, and just because some black-robed progressive doesn’t like his decisions, that doesn’t mean they have the right to stop him at every turn. Mr. Trump has a pretty good record fending off all the lawfare that he’s been subjected to, and although it may take time, I believe he will win many more of these battles.
We didn’t elect these judges to run the country—we elected a president.
