Federal Appeals Court Overturns Judge Boasberg in Massive Immigration Win for Trump© Win McNamee / Getty Images ; Drew Angerer - AFP / Getty Images

U.S District Court Judge James Boasberg was handed a defeat Friday in his bid to slap criminal contempt charges against Trump administration officials he said defied his order to block the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants.

Boasberg had sought to rein in the administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans and had threatened criminal contempt charges after finding that officials violated a Temporary Restraining Order he gave that planes heading for El Salvador with criminal illegal immigrants should return to the United States.

Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term, supported the ruling.

Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, dissented.

Each judge wrote separate opinions. In his, Katsas called the dispute “an extraordinary, ongoing confrontation between the Executive and Judicial Branches.”

He wrote that Boasberg’s actions were designed to “vindicate a TRO that the Supreme Court had vacated for lack of jurisdiction," using the acronym for a Temporary Restraining Order.