Donald Trump’s justice department has sued the federal judiciary in Maryland over an order that bars the government from deporting undocumented immigrants for at least one day after they file a legal challenge to their detention.
Chad Gilmartin, a spokesperson for Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, said in a post on X on Wednesday: “This is just the latest action by @AGPamBondi’s DOJ to rein in unlawful judicial overreach.”
The state’s federal court issued an order last month aimed at managing a wave of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s moves to swiftly deport undocumented migrants.
Maryland’s federal court was the site of one of the most contentious cases under Trump’s deportation policy when Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national, was deported and later sent back to the US after the supreme court ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return.
Ábrego García is currently facing federal charges of unlawfully trafficking undocumented immigrants. Last week, the supreme court also ruled that the administration can resume deporting migrants to countries they are not from without additional due process requirements.
The Department of Justice lawsuit against Maryland’s federal judges includes Paula Xinis, the judge overseeing Ábrego García’s case. Xinis is considering whether to sanction government officials for their initial refusal to facilitate Ábrego García’s release from custody.
The legal back-and-forth is part of an ongoing battle between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary over primacy in immigration matters, with some legal experts describing the move as an attack on judicial independence.
Government lawyers argue in the lawsuit that the action “involves yet another regrettable example of the unlawful use of equitable powers to restrain the executive”.
The complaint alleges that Maryland’s chief judge, George Russell, issued an “unlawful, antidemocratic” order granting a two-day stay of deportation to any detainee in immigration custody who files a petition alleging wrongful detention.
But the move to sue an entire bench of federal judges in a single district illustrates pressure coming from the Trump administration on the judiciary to fall in line with the administration’s policies.
“A sense of frustration and a desire for greater convenience do not give defendants license to flout the law,” justice department attorneys wrote. “Nor does their status within the judicial branch.”
But the lawsuit was quickly condemned by Wes Moore.
“After blatantly violating judicial orders, and directing personal attacks on individual judges, the White House is turning our Constitution on its head by suing judges themselves,” the governor of Maryland said in a statement. “Make no mistake: this unprecedented action is a transparent effort to intimidate judges and usurp the power of the courts.”
