Trump's attempt to undermine the courts is "unlawful and dangerous," says AG Bonta

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, right, challenges many of Donald Trump policies.

Donald Trump's attacks against the judiciary are "unlawful and dangerous," says California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Bonta, the state's first Filipino Amerifcan AG and California's top law officer, continues to challenge Trump's flurry of executive orders and actions. 

“More than two centuries ago, our founding fathers established three co-equal branches of government; each branch designed to act as a check on the others and curb the misuse of power by those in higher office. Today, that foundational tenet of American democracy is being stress-tested," says Bonta.

Trump's administration is frustrated with the legal challenges against Trump's attempts to drastically downsize the federal government and the vital services it provides for trhe safety and health of Americans. Most recently, when Homeland Security went against a judges' orders by deporting to El Salvador, hundreds of allegedly members of a Venezuelan gang.

Last Saturday, March 22, federal authorities flew the Venezuelans to El Salvador in the dead of night and without providing evidence of their gang membership and denying them their rights to defend themselves in court.

The deportation charters flew the Venezuelans to El Salvador, which agreed to receive the gang suspects after getting $6-million from the US, according to th White House.

Trump justified the deportations by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — the sme law ussed to incarcerate 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII — to deport the gang suspects. Japanese Americans and immigration advocates say the use of Alien Enemies Act in this case is illegal since it is only meant to to be used in wartime.

US District Judge James Boasberg agreed and issued an order hours after Trump invoked the wartime power stopping the administration from using it to deport anyone. However, by the time the judge's order was given, the deportees were already in the air and Trump officials, believing they were above the law, ignored the judge's order and continued onto El Salvador.

 
The judge's order sparked anger within the White House Trump and his followers argued that a district judge should not beallowed to affect national security. Some members of Congress are calling to impeach Boasberg.

"The Trump Administration has repeatedly attempted to exercise authority it does not have – authority that belongs to Congress or the states – and in doing so, violated clear legal requirements set forth in the law and in the US. Constitution," says Bonta. "These actions have required the co-equal judicial branch to order the Trump Administration to follow the law. At times, the Trump Administration has acted in contravention of those court orders.

The Venezuelans deported by Trump are being housed in an El Salvador facility.

"These actions are both unlawful and dangerous," he stressed. "Our constitutional democracy rests upon a legal system in which attorneys dutifully represent their clients, facts and law are presented to judges, and after careful consideration, those judges issue orders that must be followed.

"Attacks to undermine due process, discredit or intimidate our independent judiciary, undercut state sovereignty, or seek retribution against those who dare exercise their First Amendment right to take positions different from – or in opposition to – the President are either unlawful, inconsistent with the foundational principles of our American legal system, or both," Bonta says in a statement issued from California's Department of Justice.

"President Trump’s demands for the co-equal judiciary to capitulate to the executive branch are not normal. His decree threatening sanctions and retaliation against attorneys and law firms he dislikes is not normal. These actions threaten the very foundations of our democracy, legal system, and the rule of law," Bonta continues.

Bonta, along with 20 other Attorney's General, have banded together to challenge several of Trump's initiatives to whittle down the United States' democracy. Besides his immigration policies, they have filed lawsuits to counter the dismantling the Department of Education and Trump's desire to get rid of birthright citizenship, which is written into law by the Constitution.

"We must continue to speak up and push back when our democratic norms are violated, our legal system undermined, and our laws broken. We must hold the President and his Administration accountable to the Constitution they swore to uphold. As California Attorney General, I promise I will,” vowed Bonta.

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