Politics

U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis said she was stunned to see Donald Trump’s most notorious immigration enforcer boast about how he was looking forward to nightly check-ins in her courtroom—hours before government lawyers argued that the very same check-ins would be “extraordinarily disruptive.”

The judge had demanded on Tuesday that Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, who has faced legal censure for his team’s heavy-handed tactics, must report to her at 6 p.m. every day.

In a court filing on Wednesday evening, lawyers for the Trump administration appealed the ruling and said forcing Bovino, 55, to check in daily would cause “irreparable harm” to immigration enforcement efforts.

But their claims had already been undermined by Bovino, who gave an interview to Fox News earlier that day to “answer his critics,” telling host Harris Faulkner: “If [the judge] wants to meet with me every day… I look forward to meeting with that judge to show her exactly what’s happening.”