Republican Rep. Andy Ogles (TN-05) announced he will file articles of impeachment Monday against U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs after she again blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali migrants.
Ogles accused the Obama-appointed judge of defying the Supreme Court and using her position to obstruct President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
An Ogles spokesman argued that Burroughs crossed the line from reviewing the administration’s policy to openly resisting both the president and the nation’s highest court.
“SCOTUS made it very clear that lower courts cannot suspend TPS. Yet, an Obama-appointed judge is defying the Court and the Constitution in an attempt to subvert the will of the President. This judicial activist’s obstruction of the people’s will must be stopped. Judge Burroughs must be impeached.”
Burroughs issued a new administrative stay Friday after African Communities Together and other plaintiffs amended their lawsuit to argue that the administration’s decision violated the Fifth Amendment. The lawsuit alleges that the termination of Somalia’s TPS designation was driven by racial and national-origin discrimination.
The new filing came after the Supreme Court’s June decision in Mullin v. Doe, which sharply restricted the ability of lower courts to stop TPS terminations based on non-constitutional claims. The First Circuit subsequently reversed similar stays involving TPS for Ethiopia and South Sudan. The Somali plaintiffs contend that their amended constitutional claims make their case different.
Burroughs first paused the administration’s termination of Somalia’s TPS designation in March. That order allowed more than 1,000 Somali migrants to retain work authorization and protection from deportation while the litigation continued.
The latest stay drew an immediate response from Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival.
Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan echoed that criticism, arguing that four of the plaintiffs’ five claims are already foreclosed by the Supreme Court’s decision and called the remaining claim “frivolous.” He said Burroughs’ stay had effectively declared the administration’s termination “void” while she considered whether any claim could support a longer pause.
Filing articles will begin the process, but removing Burroughs would require considerably more. The House may impeach a federal official by a simple majority vote. The Senate would then conduct a trial, where two-thirds of the senators present would have to vote to convict and remove her from office. Only 15 federal judges have ever been impeached in American history, and only eight were convicted and removed.
Ogles has now put the option Republican leaders usually avoid directly on the table. Filing the articles Monday is the easy part. Convincing the House, and eventually two-thirds of the Senate, to punish Burroughs for her ruling will be the real test.
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