The New Republic reports White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ragged U.S. judges for interfering with President Donald Trump’s unilateral immigration policies Thursday night.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the wife and five children of a man charged in a firebombing attack against peaceful protesters in Boulder, Colorado, despite having no evidence they were involved in the attack.
United States District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the suspect’s family, however, and Leavitt blasted the “rogue” judge for defying the president.
“Well, this is just another rogue decision by a rogue judge who is trying to be—I don’t know—the president of the United States? The secretary of state? The secretary of homeland security?” said Leavitt, still seemingly missing her emblematic gold cross after a recent comedy show take-down. “Surely, these important matters of both homeland security and national security do not belong to lower district, local judges in these districts across the country.”
The New Republic notes Leavitt made a point to frame federal judges opposing the administration’s controversial deportations as “local” judges. She also blasted another judge who had stepped in to block the unlawful deportation of immigrants to South Sudan, claiming that judge stranded ICE agents in a “dangerous part of the world.” Critics say it is the Trump administration that is choosing to keep them there to avoid processing migrants’ paperwork in the U.S.
“Lower district court judges do not get to dictate the foreign policy and the national security interests of the United States of America, Leavitt said. “We can’t run a country if the executive is not allowed to freely exercise its powers, and that’s what we’re seeing take place.”
However, court decisions against the administration’s policies are mounting, according to TNR.
“A federal judge on Thursday blocked the arrest and removal of Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student and green card holder who was targeted by the administration over her involvement in pro-Palestinian protests,” TNR reports, adding U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald called the government’s argument for the removal “disturbing” and “disappointing.”
“Leavitt’s insistence that federal judges, whom she attempted to dismiss as ‘local,’ don’t have the jurisdiction to rule against Trump betrays a failure to grasp the whole “checks and balances” part of the U.S. Constitution.
