US defies court order, deports Venezuelans to El Salvador

The US has deported more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador by invoking a rarely used wartime law.

The deportations took place despite a federal judge’s order temporarily banning the expulsions.

“Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country,” Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele said Sunday on X.

Bukele said the US had also sent 23 members of the Salvadorean gang MS-13.

His post included a video of several men in handcuffs being transferred from a plane to a heavily guarded convoy.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also confirmed the deportations.

“Hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country,” he said in a statement. “I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador for playing a pivotal role in this transfer.”

How were the Venezuelans deported?

On Friday, US President Donald Trump signed an order invoking the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to bypass normal immigration procedures and rapidly expel the migrants. The order applied to all Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members who are over 14 and not naturalized US citizens or lawful permanent residents.

The wartime authority has only been invoked three times before — during the War of 1812, and World Wars I and II.

Late Saturday, US District Judge James E. Boasberg suspended the application of the law for 14 days. But by then, the Venezuelans were reportedly already on a flight to El Salvador.

The Trump administration has filed an appeal against Saturday’s court decision.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that officials had refused to comply with the court order, as she said the deportees had already left the United States.

“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from US soil,” she wrote in a statement.

What did Venezuela say?

Venezuela’s government condemned Trump’s use of the “anachronistic law,” calling it “illegal and in violation of human rights, against our migrants.”

It described the step as evocative of “the darkest episodes in human history, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.”

Venezuela also called on the international community, especially the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to oppose what it called a dangerous precedent.

Where are the alleged gang members being held?

Bukele said the alleged Tren de Aragua members had been taken to the country’s maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). The facility is a notorious mega-prison southeast of the capital, San Salvador with capacity for 40,000 prisoners.

The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has been linked to kidnapping, extortion, organized crime and contract killings.

It was not immediately clear what charges the alleged members of the group would face in El Salvador, and whether children were among those who were deported.