‘Incredibly Troublesome’: Judge Demands Answers on Trump’s Deportation Flights

Judge James E. Boasberg grilled DOJ lawyers on the administration’s rationale for rushing flights of alleged gang members to an El Salvador prison.

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Carolyn Van Houten/AP

Washington D.C.’s chief federal judge has rebuked the Trump administration’s decision to dust off a 227-year-old wartime emergency measure to rapidly deport Venezuelans.

“The policy ramifications are incredibly troublesome,” U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg told the administration Friday afternoon.

It’s “awfully frightening,” Boasberg said, that the government could summarily label any migrant an alien “invader” who could then be denied a day in court — and, as in this case, sent to an El Salvador prison accused of torturing and dehumanizing its inmates.