Donald Trump has deported more than 200 people alleged to be members of a gang despite efforts from a judge to block the move. The individuals removed from the US and transferred to a supermax prison in El Salvador are Venezuelans. The country’s President, Nayib Bukele, wrote online that 238 members of the Tren de Aragua gang had arrived with 23 members of the international MS-13 gang on Sunday morning. Neither the US nor El Salvador has provided the detainees’ identities nor provided details of their alleged criminal activities.
A federal judge’s order decreed that the Trump administration could not use an old wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to back up some of the oustings. But the flights containing the individuals had already taken off. President Bukele said on social media: “Oopsie… Too late.” James E Boasberg, chief judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia, said during a Saturday evening hearing in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Democracy Forward: “I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act.
“A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm,” he added, noting they remain in Government custody but demanding that any planes in the air be turned around.
A video has shown lines of detainees with their hands and feet shackled, escorted by armed personnel from aircraft, the BBC reports.
“The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
“The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from US territory.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X: “We sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua, which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars.”
Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Centre, told the Associated Press that Mr Boasberg’s verbal directive to turn around the planes was not technically part of his final order but that the Trump administration clearly violated its ” spirit.”
“This just incentivises future courts to be hyper-specific in their orders and not give the Government any wiggle room,” he said.
