Press Releases

Washington, D.C. (March 24, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, released the following statement after Chief Judge James Boasberg rejected the Trump Administration’s bid to continue deporting individuals to mass prisons in El Salvador without due process. The federal judge found the Administration’s actions under the Alien Enemies Act—a 1798 law for deportation of foreign nationals of an enemy power during wartime, last used during World War II to jail Japanese-Americans in internment camps—unlawful and unconstitutional:

“Judge Boasberg has strongly reaffirmed the rule of law against an act of presidential authoritarianism. He blocked the Trump Administration’s brazen attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act—a 1798 law for deporting foreign nationals of an enemy power during wartime—for the unauthorized removal of immigrants for allegedly being gang members. Congress has not declared war against Venezuela nor has Venezuela invaded the United States. Even if one of those conditions existed, the people being rounded up as foreign nationals of an enemy state have been given no due process to determine who they are, where they are from or why they are being deported. As Judge Boasberg found, this is a blatant violation of due process.
 
“The Administration’s failure to provide individual hearings before rounding up people as enemy foreign nationals and shipping them off to an overseas mega-prison operated by El Salvador’s self-proclaimed dictator was a particularly dangerous violation of the U.S. Constitution and our immigration removal laws. In America, Courts determine whether people have violated the law, not a rogue president. Due process exists to ensure the innocent are not swept up in the chaos of unchecked executive power. This violation of American law is also, no doubt, a violation of international law. 
 
“Federal judges across the country are doing their duty and upholding their oath to the Constitution and the laws of the United States despite vicious personal attacks and outrageous threats of impeachment from President Trump and his Administration. Judge Boasberg’s ruling reminds America that it is the duty of federal judges to ‘say what the law is’ while it is the core duty of the President to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Faithfully executing the laws means, at a very minimum, not violating them.
 
“Threatening judges with impeachment or retribution for upholding their oaths of office and doing their jobs under the Constitution is an act of outlaw tyranny, not constitutional government.
 
“The American people owe Judge Boasberg a debt of thanks for his analytical clarity and constitutional patriotism even in the face of outrageous threats.”