About 250 suspected gang members arrive in El Salvador by plane in this photo from Sunday, including 238 members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and 23 members of the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the U.S.. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele confirmed they will be sent to the country’s mega-prison CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center.
El Salvador Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
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El Salvador Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Trump administration has deported around 250 individuals identified as part of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang, to El Salvador this past weekend, as disclosed by multiple administration officials on Sunday via social media platforms.
It remains unclear whether the deportations occurred prior to or following a federal judge’s emergency order in D.C. on Saturday, which mandated the administration to halt the immediate deportation of individuals using wartime powers and to return any flights already airborne. Senior officials from the Justice Department indicated in a filing on Sunday that the order arrived too late to prevent the deportations since the aircraft were already outside U.S. jurisdiction.
President Trump issued a proclamation on Saturday invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against the Tren de Aragua. This rarely used law grants the president the ability to detain or expel citizens from enemy nations during wartime or in times of invasion, marking its first application since World War II.
The deportations included two purported leaders of the MS-13 gang, which had not been initially included in Saturday’s action, along with 21 other associated members, as shared by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Although MS-13 originated in Los Angeles during the 1980s, many of its members currently operate in El Salvador, where the Trump administration has also classified it as a foreign terrorist organization.
“Thanks to the exceptional efforts of the State Department, these dangerous individuals have been extracted and sent to El Salvador where they will no longer pose a risk to the American populace,” stated White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Oops… too late,” Bukele tweeted in reply to a news headline concerning the judicial order.
With the migrants now in El Salvador, questions arise about the jurisdiction of U.S. courts over their cases. The White House did not respond immediately to inquiries regarding the landing times of the planes or any possibility of returning migrants to the U.S. following the court’s order.
Government attorneys indicated on Sunday that “some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory” prior to the judge’s order at 7:26 p.m. on Saturday, which sought to prevent immediate deportations. This filing was endorsed by senior Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The Alien Enemies Act enables an expedited deportation process, implying that individuals deemed subject to presidential declaration are exempt from standard immigration court procedures and cannot claim asylum. Furthermore, the proclamation does not afford time to contest the government’s assertions regarding gang membership.
Wendy Ramos, a representative from the El Salvador presidency, informed NPR that there were no details regarding those deported, including whether they had prior criminal convictions in the U.S.
The law necessitates an “invasion or predatory incursion”
Immigrant rights advocates fear that invoking this act could pave the way for targeting and deporting others irrespective of their status or criminal backgrounds.
The last invocation of the Alien Enemies Act occurred during WWII, wherein approximately 31,000 individuals identified as enemy aliens, predominantly of Japanese, Italian, and German descent, were confined in internment camps and military facilities. The law stipulates that a formal declaration of war or an “invasion or predatory incursion” by a foreign nation or government is required.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on Saturday seeking to halt the deportations of five Venezuelan men for a duration of 14 days. This request was subsequently expanded to encompass all individuals who could potentially be deported under Trump’s proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act.
Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., consented to block the deportations of these five individuals on Saturday and later extended the order to include anyone covered by Trump’s proclamation. An additional hearing in this matter is scheduled for March 21.
The Trump administration has already filed an appeal against the judge’s rulings to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney for the ACLU in this case, claimed that the administration’s application of the Alien Enemies Act is unlawful, asserting that only Congress holds the authority to declare a state of war justifying the detention of alleged “foreign aliens.”
“The Alien Enemies Act cannot be used for regular immigration enforcement during peacetime,” Gelernt emphasized. “The statute clearly states it should only be employed against foreign governments or nations. Historically, it has never been invoked during peacetime, particularly against a gang.”
Besides questioning the president’s authority, Gelernt raised doubts about the actual gang membership of the hundreds deported to El Salvador.
“These individuals were not afforded a hearing to contest their alleged gang membership,” he remarked.
El Salvador accepts deportees
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador on Feb. 3, 2025.
Mark Schiefelbein/Pool/AP/AFP via Getty Images
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Mark Schiefelbein/Pool/AP/AFP via Getty Images
On Sunday, Bukele, the president of El Salvador, shared a video purportedly showing 238 members of the Tren de Aragua disembarking in El Salvador, stating they would be transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a duration of one year.
The Salvadoran government additionally released numerous images depicting handcuffed men kneeling in the presence of guards after having their hair shaved.
El Salvador has employed the CECOT “mega prison” to hold alleged gang members as part of a larger crackdown that permits police to detain anyone suspected of gang affiliation, even in the absence of evidence.
Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, previously stated that El Salvador’s president had consented to accept deportees of any nationality from the U.S. Bukele’s social media updates on Sunday referred to “a very low fee” that the United States compensated El Salvador for the deportation services.
“Thank you for your assistance and friendship, President Bukele,” Rubio mentioned on social media on Sunday, indicating that El Salvador agreed to detain the deported individuals “in their very good jails at a reasonable price that will also save taxpayer money,” he added.
NPR’s Eyder Peralta and Danielle Kurtzleben contributed to this report.
