About 250 suspected gang members arrive in El Salvador by aircraft on this picture from Sunday, together with 238 members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and 23 members of the MS-13 gang, who had been deported to El Salvador by the U.S.. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele confirmed they are going to be despatched to the nation’s mega-prison CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Heart.
El Salvador Presidency/Handout/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
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El Salvador Presidency/Handout/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
The Trump administration deported about 250 individuals who it says are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan jail gang, to El Salvador this weekend, a number of members of the administration mentioned on social media on Sunday.
It was not instantly clear if the deportations occurred earlier than or after a federal choose in D.C. on Saturday issued an emergency order that informed the administration to cease utilizing wartime powers to right away deport folks, and switch round any planes already within the air. Senior Justice Division officers in a submitting on Sunday argued that the order got here too late to cease the deportations, as planes had been already exterior U.S. territory.
President Trump on Saturday issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in opposition to Tren de Aragua. The seldom-used legislation offers the president authority to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation throughout wartime or invasion. It is the primary time the act has been used since World Battle II.
The deportations to El Salvador additionally included two alleged leaders of the MS-13 gang, which wasn’t included in Saturday’s motion, and 21 different members of the gang, in accordance with posts from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and from El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
MS-13 began in Los Angeles within the Eighties, however lots of its members additionally function in El Salvador and the Trump administration has additionally designated it as a international terrorist group.
“Because of the nice work of the Division of State, these heinous monsters had been extracted and eliminated to El Salvador the place they’ll not be capable of pose any risk to the American Individuals,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned in a press release.
“Ooopsie… too late,” Bukele postedin response to a information headline concerning the judicial order.
With the migrants now in El Salvador, it is unclear what jurisdiction U.S. courts have over them. The White Home did not instantly reply to a request for remark concerning the timing of when the planes landed, or whether or not any migrants might be returned to the U.S. in response to the courtroom’s order.
Authorities legal professionals on Sunday wrote that “some gang members topic to elimination below the Proclamation had already been faraway from United States territory” by the point of the choose’s order at 7:26 p.m. on Saturday, which sought to dam quick deportations. The courtroom submitting was signed by the highest Justice Division leaders, together with Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi and Deputy Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche.
The Alien Enemies Act permits an expedited elimination course of, which suggests these topic to the president’s declaration wouldn’t undergo the traditional immigration proceedings in courtroom, or be capable of declare asylum. The proclamation additionally leaves no time to contest the federal government’s claims that individuals are members of a legal gang.
Wendy Ramos, a spokesperson for El Salvador’s presidency, informed NPR that El Salvador did not have any particulars concerning the folks deported, together with whether or not they had been convicted of against the law within the U.S.
The legislation requires an “invasion or predatory incursion”
Immigrant rights advocates concern that invoking the act would additionally open the door for focusing on and deporting others, no matter their standing or legal information.
The final time a president invoked the Alien Enemies Act was WWII, throughout which 31,000 suspected enemy aliens of largely Japanese, Italian and German descent had been positioned in internment camps and army services. The legislation requires warfare to be formally declared, or any “invasion or predatory incursion” by a international nation or authorities.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Ahead in a lawsuit on Saturday sought to dam the deportations of 5 Venezuelan males for 14 days, and later broadened the request to all individuals who might be deported below Trump’s “Alien Enemies Act” proclamation.
Decide James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court docket in Washington, D.C., agreed to dam the deportations of the 5 males on Saturday. He later broadened the order to anybody coated by Trump’s proclamation. One other listening to within the case is ready for March 21.
The Trump administration has already appealed the choose’s rulings to the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead counsel on the case, mentioned the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act is illegitimate as a result of it is as much as Congress to declare a state of warfare that enables detention of so-called “international aliens.”
“The Alien Enemies Act can’t be used throughout peace time for normal immigration enforcement,” Gelernt mentioned. “Congress was very clear within the statute that it may possibly solely be used in opposition to a international authorities or international nation. It has by no means in our nation’s historical past been used throughout peacetime, a lot much less in opposition to a gang.”
Past the query of the president’s authority, Gelernt additionally questioned whether or not the a whole bunch deported to El Salvador had been in truth gang members.
“These people didn’t get a listening to to point out they don’t seem to be members of a gang,” Gelernt mentioned.
El Salvador Accepts Sports activities
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 through Getty Photographs
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Mark Schiefelbein/Pool/AP/AFP through Getty Photographs
Bukele, El Salvador’s president, posted a video on Sunday of what he mentioned was 238 members of Tren de Aragua arriving in El Salvador. He mentioned they’d be transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Heart within the nation, for a interval of 1 yr.
El Salvador’s authorities on Sunday shared dozens of photographs displaying males handcuffed and kneeling, surrounded by guards, after having their heads shaved.
El Salvador you’ve used the cecot “mega jail” to imprison alleged gang members as a part of a broader crackdown that enables police to detain anybody they think of getting gang affiliations, even with out proof.
Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, final month mentioned El Salvador’s president had agreed to simply accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality. Bukele’s social media posts on Sunday discuss with “a really low charge” that america paid to El Salvador for the deportations.
“Thanks on your help and friendship, President Bukele,” Rubio mentioned on social media on Sunday. El Salvador agreed to carry the folks deported “of their superb jails at a good worth that may even save our taxpayer {dollars},” Rubio added.
NPR’s Eyder Peralta and Danielle Kurtzleben contributed to this story.
