64% of voters back Trump’s plans to deport Tren de Aragua gang members—half favor impeachment for federal judge trying to block it
Trump has called for Judge James Boasberg’s impeachment, calling him a “radical left lunatic of a judge”
Roughly two-thirds of voters support President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, while nearly half favor impeaching the judge who blocked the deportations, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey.
The poll found that 64 percent of likely voters back the Trump administration’s policy, with 47 percent saying they strongly support it. Among Republicans, support is overwhelming at 89 percent, while 64 percent of unaffiliated voters and 43 percent of Democrats at least somewhat support efforts to deport Venezuelan gang members.
After taking office, Trump designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization and attempted to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport its members living in the US illegally. However, US District Judge James Boasberg issued an injunction halting the deportations. Since then, calls for Boasberg’s impeachment among Republicans have grown, and a large percentage of voters seem to agree. 49 percent of voters support his removal, according to the survey of 1,106 likely voters conducted March 17-19.
On Monday, Boasberg refused to lift his temporary ban on the deportations despite an appeal from the Trump administration.
“The Court need not resolve the thorny question of whether the judiciary has the authority to assess this claim in the first place. That is because Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on another equally fundamental theory: before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them. As the Government itself concedes, the awesome power granted by the Act may be brought to bear only on those who are, in fact, ‘alien enemies,’” Boasberg wrote.
Trump has called for Boasberg’s impeachment, calling him a “radical left lunatic of a judge” and an “agitator.” The president defended his immigration policies in a post on social media, stating that he is “just doing what the voters” want him to do and that Americans “don’t want vicious, violent, and demented criminals, many of them deranged murderers, in our country.”
