In late July 2026, the Department of Homeland Security's general counsel, James Percival, used his official-title account on X (@DHSGenCounsel) to post a series he called “Worst of the Worst, District Judge Edition,” naming four sitting federal district judges, identifying the Democratic presidents who appointed them, and condemning their rulings in immigration cases. The framing deliberately echoed DHS's own “Worst of the Worst Criminal Illegal Aliens” list, applying the label the department uses for accused criminals to members of the federal judiciary.
The four judges were Matthew Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois (a Clinton appointee), Allison Burroughs of the District of Massachusetts (Obama), Paula Xinis of the District of Maryland (Obama), and Hernán Vera of the Central District of California (Biden). Kennelly and Burroughs were singled out for temporarily preserving deportation protections for Burmese and Somali immigrants.
The posts landed as threats against the federal judiciary reached a record. The U.S. Marshals Service tracked 564 threats against federal judges in the last fiscal year, up roughly 11 percent from 509 the year before. U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, whose son was murdered in 2020 by a litigant who came to her home, said the posts put “a bullseye” on judges: “They're inviting people to do us harm.”
Percival and DHS defended the posts as fair criticism. Percival wrote that “legitimate fact based critiques of judges and their rulings is fair game in a free society” and called the media reaction “absolute absurdity.” The dispute is over a senior administration lawyer using his official platform to single out individual judges by name at a moment when threats against them are already climbing (see D.C. Circuit Judges Force Hegseth's Lawyer to Concede That Sen. Mark Kelly Never Said 'Disobey Lawful Orders' in the Video Hegseth Used to Try to Strip His Rank).