Former AG Bill Barr blasts judges for 'usurping' Trump's national security authority on deportation flights
Legal battles continue over President Donald Trump’s migrant deportation flights, particularly those involving Venezuelan migrants sent to El Salvador. Former Attorney General Bill Barr says the judges blocking these flights are overstepping their authority.
"There’s a pattern whereby these district court judges are trying to usurp the responsibility of the president in the national security area," Barr said Tuesday on "America’s Newsroom."
"The president is absolutely right to be frustrated and concerned about the way the courts are handling this."
Barr’s comments follow U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s decision to halt the deportation of individuals alleged to be gang members, citing due process concerns. Boasberg also ordered the government to return planes carrying migrants who had already been deported.
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According to Barr, the ruling goes beyond the judge’s authority and interferes with the president’s constitutional powers.
"The Constitution gives the president the power to make the judgments about how we deal with foreign nationals when we are animated by national security concerns," said Barr, who served as Trump's attorney general in 2019 and 2020.
"It’s his call, not a district court judge’s call."
Judge Boasberg has requested further details about the El Salvador flight, including when it landed and who was on board. However, the Trump administration has invoked the state secrets privilege, allowing it to withhold that information from the court.
On Monday, government attorneys asked an appeals court to lift Boasberg’s order and allow the deportation flights to resume. The judges on the panel appeared divided, with Judge Patricia Millett comparing the situation to World War II policies.
"Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemy Act than has happened here," she said, arguing that even Nazis had hearing boards before being deported, while the migrants in this case allegedly received no due process.
Barr says this case underscores a broader issue of district court judges issuing nationwide injunctions that impact the entire country.
"Even where it’s appropriate for the court to play its traditional role of safeguarding the liberties of American citizens, we have this phenomena of nation-wide injunctions where the lowest level judge, district judges, try to bind the entire nation and bind the president in their initial decision. That is not what we have meant by the judicial power under our Constitution," Barr said.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan voiced similar concerns in 2022 during a speech at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
"It can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks and leave it stopped for the years it takes to go through normal process," she said.
Barr is calling on the Supreme Court to intervene and resolve the issue.
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"If they [the U.S. Supreme Court] finally stand up and decide a case instead of hanging back from these decisions, I think it’ll come out the right way," he said.
"I think most of the justices appreciate how absurd this is."