John Roberts, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, during the 60th presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked President Donald Trump after the president called for the impeachment of a federal judge who issued orders blocking Trump’s plan to deport any more alleged members of a Venezuelan gang from the United States.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement on Trump’s demand.

“The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said, several hours after Trump in a Truth Social wrote that Chief Judge James Boasberg, “like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Roberts’ statement.

Boasberg is presiding over a lawsuit challenging the deportations in Washington, D.C., federal court. The Trump administration argues the removals of alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang are authorized under the wartime Alien Enemies Act.

Boasberg on Saturday issued two orders enjoining Trump from deporting aliens detained in immigration proceedings who are allegedly associated with the TdA, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

At a hearing Monday, Boasberg pressed a top Department of Justice lawyer on whether the administration had violated Boasberg’s orders.

The DOJ lawyer refused to answer many of those questions, citing national security concerns. Boasberg later told the DOJ to file a response to his questions, or its arguments for why they should not be answered, by Tuesday.

The DOJ has asked the D.C. federal appeals court to remove Boasberg from the case, and also Boasberg directly to vacate his orders.

The DOJ in a court filing Monday said Boasberg “lacks jurisdiction because the presidential actions they challenge are not subject to judicial review.” The same filing challenged Boasberg’s power to order DOJ lawyers to produce information about the deportations of hundreds of alleged TdA members over the weekend to Central America.

James Boasberg, incoming chief judge of the US District Court, in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, March 13, 2023. 

On Tuesday, a top U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in a declaration filed in Boasberg’s court revealed that one of three planes carrying alleged gang members departed the United States for El Salvador on Saturday night, after Boasberg had issued an order barring their deportation.

“But all individuals on that third plane had Title 8 final removal orders and thus were not removed solely on the basis of the Proclamation at issue” in the lawsuit, the declaration said.

“To avoid any doubt, no one on any flight departing the United States after 7:25 PM EDT on March 15, 2025, was removed solely on the basis of the Proclamation at issue.”

The filing also said that about 54 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang are currently in detention, about 172 alleged members are on the non-detained docket and about 32 are in criminal custody with active detainers against them.

“Should they be transferred to ICE custody, they will likely be placed in removal proceeding,” the filing said.

Critics of Trump’s deportation effort have questioned how his administration determined who is a member of the gang.

In a declaration filed in court Monday, the acting field office director of enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote, “Agency personnel carefully vetted each individual alien to ensure they were in fact members of TdA.”

The acting director, Robert Cerna, wrote that “It was critical to remove TdA members subject to the [deportation] Proclamation quickly.”

“Keeping them in ICE custody where they could potentially continue to recruit new TdA members posed a grave risk to ICE personnel; other, nonviolent detainees; and the United States as a whole,” Cerna said.

“Holding hundreds of members of a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, where there is an immediate mechanism to remove them, would be irresponsible.”

“While it is true that many of the TdA members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States, that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time,” Cerna wrote.

“The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with TdA, the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”