WASHINGTON, D.C.: In a striking escalation of tensions between the executive and judicial branches, the Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and all 15 of its federal judges, challenging a recent order that temporarily blocks migrant deportations in the state.

The lawsuit, filed late June 24 by the Justice Department in a Baltimore federal court, targets a standing court order issued last month that imposes an automatic two-business-day delay on deporting any migrant in Maryland who files a new habeas corpus petition challenging their detention.

The Justice Department argues that the order exceeds judicial authority and violates Supreme Court precedent on injunctions. It contends that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, federal courts are barred from interfering with active deportation proceedings.

Calling the Maryland court's action an "egregious example of judicial overreach," the administration is seeking a ruling to invalidate the order and an injunction to prevent its enforcement. The lawsuit also requests that all Maryland judges recuse themselves and ask that a judge from another jurisdiction handle the case instead.

A representative for the Maryland court declined to comment.

Chief U.S. District Judge George Russell, an appointee of a Democratic president, signed the court's order. It cited a "recent influx of habeas petitions" involving detained migrants at risk of imminent removal. It noted that many of these filings occurred during evenings, weekends, or holidays, resulting in rushed hearings where judges struggled to get clear information on detainees' locations and legal status.

The two-day pause was intended to give judges time to review such cases before deportations proceeded—an effort at judicial due process amid the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement.

The issue gained national attention after the 2023 deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had lived in Maryland with his American wife and child. Though an immigration judge ruled in 2019 that Abrego should not be deported due to the risk of gang violence, he was nonetheless removed in March of this year. He was returned to the U.S. on June 6, after a Maryland court ordered his return. That only happened, however, after the Justice Department filed criminal charges against him for migrant smuggling—a charge he has denied. He is now awaiting a court ruling in Tennessee on the conditions of his release.

The Justice Department's lawsuit frames the Maryland court's order as part of a broader pattern of judicial resistance to the president's immigration policies. "Every unlawful order entered by the district courts robs the Executive Branch of its most scarce resource: time to put its policies into effect," the lawsuit stated. "In the process, such orders diminish the votes of the citizens who elected the head of the Executive Branch."

While the Maryland judges have not responded publicly, the legal battle could have major implications for how courts nationwide handle emergency immigration filings and how far the executive branch is willing to go to counter them.