Trump called for federal Judge James Boasberg to be impeached on Tuesday
Judge puts White House on deadline to answer specific questions on deportation flights
The 'Fox & Friends' co-hosts discuss the latest on the legal feud between the Trump administration and an Obama-appointed judge over deportation flights to El Salvador.
FIRST ON FOX: A House GOP lawmaker has filed impeachment articles against the federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to stop deportation flights being conducted under the Alien Enemies Act.
"For the past several weeks, we've seen several rogue activist judges try to impede the president from exercising, not only the mandate voters gave him, but his democratic and constitutional authority to keep the American people safe," Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. "This is another example of a rogue judge overstepping his…authority."
Gill's resolution, first obtained by Fox News Digital, accused U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg of abusing his power in levying an emergency pause on the Trump administration's plans to deport illegal immigrants under a wartime authority first issued in 1798, which President Donald Trump recently invoked to get members of the criminal Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua out of the U.S.
"Chief Judge Boasberg required President Trump to turn around planes midair that had aliens associated with Tren De Aragua, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," the resolution said. "This conduct jeopardizes the safety of the nation, represents an abuse of judicial power, and is detrimental to the orderly functioning of the judiciary. Using the powers of his office, Chief Judge Boasberg has attempted to seize power from the Executive Branch and interfere with the will of the American people."
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Rep. Brandon Gill has filed an impeachment resolution against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. (Getty Images)
In a brief interview with Fox News Digital shortly before filing his resolution, Gill suggested he wanted the matter to go through the House in traditional form – which would first put the resolution in front of the House Judiciary Committee, where Gill is a member.
"I'll be talking to [Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio] about it," Gill said. "I think the best way to do this…is to go through the judiciary committee, which is where impeachment of judges runs through. I think the more we can stick with that plan, the better."
A legal firestorm is brewing after Boasberg verbally issued a 14-day restraining order Saturday night to immediately halt the Trump administration's Tren De Aragua deportation plan. It comes in response to human rights groups arguing Venezuelan nationals with legitimate asylum claims are in danger of being swept up in the deportations, despite having no known connection to the notorious gang.
The Texas Republican, who is class president for first-term members in the 119th Congress, first threatened to file impeachment articles against Boasberg on Sunday. Trump backed the move on Tuesday morning in a fiery post on his Truth Social account.
Trump called him a "Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator," adding, "HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY."
"I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!" Trump wrote.
A video shared by El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele shows the U.S. deportees getting their heads shaved at a notorious Salvadorian prison. (@nayibbukele via X)
Gill accused Boasberg of knowingly "tying the president's hands so that Trump and his team, instead of executing on the mandate the voters gave him, are litigating every single action that the president is taking."
He said it was "unconstitutional" and a "usurpation of executive authority."
The Trump administration has pointed out that the judge's written order was issued after two planes carrying alleged gang members were already in the air, arguing it was too late to turn the planes around at that point. A third plane that took off after the first two was not carrying any Alien Enemies Act deportees, the administration said.
"All of the planes that were subject to the written order, the judge's written order, took off before the order was entered in the courtroom on Saturday," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. She said the administration did not run afoul of any court order.
But Boasberg pushed back in a court hearing later that day, according to the Associated Press, saying at one point to the Trump administration's lawyer, "I’m just asking how you think my equitable powers do not attach to a plane that has departed the U.S., even if it’s in international airspace."
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The standoff could make it all the way to the Supreme Court, and could have seismic repercussions on the bounds of lower-level federal judges' authority.
Gill's move also comes after similar threats by other Trump allies in the House. Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., and Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., have all vowed to file impeachment articles against U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer for blocking Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts.
The court declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Gill's resolution.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to
