DHS Called Out Four Democrat-Appointed Judges and Two of Their Colleagues Could Not Handle It

DHS quietly named four Democrat-appointed judges the Worst of the Worst on X.

Two fellow Obama judges could not let the list stand unanswered.

What one of them said next left even her own allies struggling to defend her.

DHS Named Four Democrat-Appointed Judges as the Worst of the Worst

DHS General Counsel James Percival started a thread on X called Worst of the Worst, District Judge Edition.

He named four sitting federal judges.

He listed their rulings.

He listed the presidents who appointed them.

He did not threaten a single one of them.

Judge Matthew Kennelly, a Clinton appointee, stopped DHS from ending deportation protections for Burmese nationals while the case plays out.

Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, did the same thing for Somalia – after the Supreme Court already told Trump he could shut the program down.

Judge Paula Xinis ordered the release of illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia and blocked his removal even after DHS said it had no plans to deport him.

Judge Hernan Vera, a Biden appointee, restricted how ICE agents can respond to violent anti-ICE agitators, describing them as legal observers while calling DHS's own defense of its officers violent.

Percival called it what it is – judicial sabotage.

Salas and Bloom Fired Back on a Friday Podcast

Judges Esther Salas and Beth Bloom sat down together for the Legal AF podcast on Friday.

The show is run by lawyers who spent years attacking Trump on television.

Both judges went after Percival's thread as a coordinated pair, not as one judge speaking up.

Bloom told the audience the thread was designed to intimidate her colleagues off the bench.

Salas went further and made it personal.

She brought up Roy Den Hollander – the deranged attorney who shot her son Daniel dead on their doorstep in 2020 and wounded her husband.

She told the podcast there was no difference between that gunman's motive and what Percival is doing now.

Then she said the quiet part – DHS's lawyer was painting a target on judges' backs.

Two sitting federal judges just teamed up to compare a Trump appointee accurately describing court rulings to the psychopath who murdered one of their colleague's children.

Neither judge has identified a single factual error in Percival's thread.

The Facts Do Not Care About Feelings

DHS says its thread is a factual review of judicial decisions and their consequences.

Salas accused Percival of mischaracterizing the rulings – but she never said which part he got wrong.

Bloom never identified an inaccuracy either.

The judges are not disputing the record.

They are demanding the record stay hidden.

That is not judicial independence.

That is a guild protecting its own.

This Is Not New – It Is the Same Playbook as Boasberg

Democrat-appointed judges have been running interference on Trump's agenda since day one of his second term.

Judge James Boasberg became the face of it after he was mysteriously assigned case after case involving the administration.

More than 15 nationwide injunctions hit Trump within his first months back in office alone.

During his first term, 92 percent of similar injunctions came from judges appointed by Democrats.

Senator Eric Schmitt introduced the BOASBERG Act to stop judges from steering cases to themselves.

The House already passed the No Rogue Rulings Act to rein in the practice.

Salas and Bloom are not victims of an intimidation campaign.

They are foot soldiers defending a system that has let their colleagues override elections for a year and a half.

Percival Is Not Backing Down

Percival told reporters exactly what his critics do not want America to hear.

He said this is a small group of judges causing the same problems over and over, not an epidemic across the bench.

Fox News reported Percival dismissed the media freakout over his thread as the absolute absurdity of the liberal media response.

He is right to laugh at it.

Judges who rule from the bench in public do not get to hide from public scrutiny in private.

Salas had every right to grieve her son.

Neither she nor Bloom had the right to weaponize that grief against a man who never threatened either of them.

The next time a judge blocks a deportation flight or reinstates protected status for a country Congress never approved, remember what these two said on that podcast.

They would rather compare an accurate thread to an assassin than answer for the rulings themselves.

That tells you everything about who is really afraid of the facts.

Sources:

• Shawn Fleetwood, "Obama Judges Attack DHS On Anti-Trump Podcast For Noticing Their Colleagues' Activism," The Federalist, August 3, 2026.
• Kyle Becker, "Activist Judge's Comparison of Trump Official to Her Son's Killer Is Beyond the Pale," RedState, July 30, 2026.
• "DHS eviscerates media for 'absolute absurdity' over concern about 'worst of the worst' activist judges list," Fox News, July 29, 2026.
• "Top DHS Official Scorches 'Worst of the Worst' Leftist Judges Sabotaging Trump's Deportation Policies," Breitbart, August 1, 2026.
• Kyle Becker, "Rogue Judge Finally Gets an Act Named After Him – What It Does Is Hilarious," RedState, July 28, 2026.
• "House passes bill to limit 'rogue' judges from blocking Trump agenda," Fox News, April 10, 2025.
• "Trump finds new target in crusade against judges: Nationwide injunctions," CBS News, March 22, 2025.