Trump Administration Deports Alleged Venezuelan Gang Members Despite Court Order

The White House invoked a rare wartime law to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, sparking a legal battle.

The Trump administration has deported hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under a rarely used wartime law, bypassing normal immigration procedures and possibly defying a federal judge's temporary ban on the move.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed the arrival of the deported on Sunday, posting images on X of men in handcuffs being escorted from a plane to buses and a prison. 

"Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country," Bukele wrote. He also declared that 23 members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, including two high-ranking leaders, were also sent to El Salvador. 

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order invoking the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to bypass immigration procedures and expedite the removal of foreign nationals deemed a threat. The order applied to all Tren de Aragua members over the age of 14 who were not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

The Alien Enemies Act has been used only three times in U.S. history—during the War of 1812 and in both world wars. The Trump administration justified its use by framing Tren de Aragua as an organization effectively at war with the United States. 

"Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including [Tren de Aragua]," Trump's statement read. "The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Democracy Forward immediately challenged the deportations, initially seeking to block the removal of five Venezuelan men under Trump's proclamation before broadening the case to cover all those affected.

"The Alien Enemies Act cannot be used during peace time for regular immigration enforcement," ACLU lead counsel Lee Gelernt told NPR. "Congress was very clear in the statute that it can only be used against a foreign government or foreign nation. It has never in our country's history been used during peacetime, much less against a gang."

Late Saturday, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued a 14-day temporary restraining order halting the deportations. "Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States however that is accomplished," Boasberg directed during the hearing. "Make sure it's complied with immediately." 

But during a break in the hearing, a flight carrying Venezuelan gang members reportedly took off. It was about an hour and 15 minutes from landing in El Salvador when the judge's order came through. 

"Oopsie…Too late," posted Bukele on X, adding a smiley face emoji. Secretary of State Marco Rubio retweeted Bukele's post.

The Trump administration has denied that officials intentionally defied the court order, arguing that the deportees had already left U.S. airspace when the ruling was issued. The Justice Department, which immediately filed an appeal against the order, submitted a two-page filing to Boasberg on Sunday afternoon, claiming that "some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory under the Proclamation before the issuance of this Court's…order." 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration's actions, dismissing Boasberg's ruling as overreach. "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 on Sunday. 

Boasberg has scheduled a further hearing for later today. Meanwhile, ACLU and Democracy Forward attorneys have requested sworn declarations from the Department of Justice to clarify whether the flights took off before or after the court's ruling.  

Bukele stated that the prisoner transfer was the result of discussions last month with Rubio. The deportees were sent directly to El Salvador's  Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a 40,000-person megaprison Bukele built as part of his crackdown on gangs.

CECOT has faced widespread criticism over alleged human rights abuses, overcrowding, and lack of due process. It remains unclear what specific charges the Venezuelan deportees will face in El Salvador or what legal jurisdiction U.S. courts may still have over them.

In exchange for accepting Venezuelan prisoners, El Salvador will receive financial compensation from the U.S.; the precise amount remains undisclosed. The exact number of deportees is also uncertain—while Bukele reported 238, Leavitt claimed that nearly 300 were sent. 

While the Trump administration asserts that all deportees were gang members, any verification of their affiliations remains murky. The New York Times has reported that the deportations "created panic among families who fear that their relatives are among those handed over by the Trump administration to Salvadoran authorities, apparently without due process."

Neither the U.S. nor El Salvador has released the names of the deported Venezuelans.