The Trump administration just activated a federal immigration court that has existed for 30 years without ever hearing a single case. The left is outraged. The media is alarmed. And the punchline is that the judge who has spent years blocking Trump’s immigration enforcement apparently suggested they use it in the first place.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was established by Congress in 1996 specifically to handle deportation cases involving classified national security evidence — allowing the government to remove suspected alien terrorists without exposing sensitive intelligence sources and methods in open court proceedings. It’s a real court. Created by Congress. Signed into law. Sitting dormant for three decades because no administration ever bothered to open the packaging.
Until now.
The media’s objections fall into two categories, both of which collapse under minimal scrutiny. The first complaint is that the court is secret — proceedings are closed, evidence can be withheld from the defense, and the media can’t see what’s happening inside. The second complaint, delivered with complete seriousness by Mother Jones, is that Trump is trying to “revive a zombie court.” You cannot revive something that was never used. A court that has never heard a case is not a zombie. It’s a courthouse with the lights still off.
On the secrecy objection: yes, that’s the point. The entire rationale for the ATRC is that some immigration cases involve classified intelligence too sensitive for open court. The government shouldn’t have to choose between protecting national security sources and removing people who pose a national security threat. Congress recognized that 30 years ago when they created this court. The fact that it was never used before doesn’t make it illegal. It makes every previous administration less creative.
Now here’s the part that makes this genuinely delicious. In March 2025, during one of Judge James Boasberg’s many hostile exchanges with DOJ lawyers over deportation policy, Boasberg himself raised the ATRC as a possible avenue for removing suspected alien terrorists. He apparently meant it as a dismissive redirect — pointing DOJ lawyers toward a never-used court as a kind of legal wild goose chase. Instead, they took notes.
The judge who has become the administration’s most persistent judicial obstacle essentially handed them a roadmap to a tool he apparently assumed they’d never use. They used it. And now the same legal and media ecosystem that spent months cheering every Boasberg ruling against the administration is furious about an option their favorite judge himself floated.
The legal questions going forward are legitimate. Due process issues under this court’s structure will almost certainly reach the Supreme Court, and how those questions get resolved will determine the ATRC’s long-term usefulness as an enforcement tool. Those are worthy debates.
But the complaints currently circulating — it’s secret, it’s never been used before, it might be a “zombie court” — are not legal arguments. They’re noise from people who can’t actually say what law was broken.
Judge Boasberg opened this door. Trump walked through it.That’s not an abuse of power. That’s exactly how the law is supposed to work.