About 250 members of alleged gangs arrive in Salvador by plane on this photo on Sunday, including 238 members of the Gang Tren of Aragua in Venezuela and 23 members of the Gang MS-13, who were expelled in Salvador by the United States. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, confirmed that they would be sent to the MEGA-Prison Cecot in the country, the center for the confinement of terrorism.
El Salvador Presidency / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images
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El Salvador Presidency / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images
The Trump Administration expelled around 250 people who, according to them, are members of Tren from Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang, in Salvador this weekend, said several members of the administration on social networks.
It was not immediately clear if the deportations had occurred before or after a federal judge In DC on Saturday, made an emergency prescription that told the administration to stop using powers in wartime to immediately expel people and return all the planes already in the air. On Sunday, senior officials from the Ministry of Justice argued that the order arrived too late to stop the deportations, because the planes were already outside the American territory.
President Trump published a proclamation Invoking the law on extraterrestrial enemies of 1798 against Tren de Aragua. The law rarely used gives the president the power to hold or expel the nationals of an enemy nation during the war or the invasion. This is the first time that the act has been used since the Second World War.
Deportations to El Salvador also included two alleged leaders of the Gang MS-13, which was not included in the action of Saturday, and 21 other gang members, according to the posts of the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the president of Salvadoran El Nayib Bukele.
MS-13 Started in Los Angeles In the 1980s, but many of its members also operated in Salvador and the Trump administration also designated It’s like a foreign terrorist organization.
“Thanks to the great work of the State Department, these odious monsters were extracted and removed from its functions in Salvador where they will no longer be able to constitute a threat to the American people,” said the white house press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a press release.
“OOOPSIE … Too late,” Bukele posterIn response to a title of news on the judicial order.
With migrants now in Salvador, we don’t know what American jurisdictions have on them. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the calendar as long as the planes landed, or if migrants could be returned to the United States in response to the court order.
Government lawyers on Sunday written that “Some gang members subject to the abolition of the proclamation had already been withdrawn from the United States territory” at the time of the judge’s ordinance at 7:26 p.m. on Saturday, which sought to block immediate deportations. The court file was signed by the main leaders of the Ministry of Justice, in particular the Attorney General Pam Bondi and the deputy prosecutor Todd Blanche.
The Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies authorizes an accelerated referral process, which means that those subject to the president’s declaration would not take the normal immigration procedure before the courts or could not claim asylum. The proclamation does not allow time to challenge government’s assertions that people are members of a criminal gang.
Wendy Ramos, spokesperson for the presidency of El Salvador, told NPR that El Salvador had no details on the expelled persons, especially if they had been guilty of a crime in the United States
The law requires “predatory invasion or foaming”
The defenders of immigrant rights fear that invoking it the law also will also take the door to target and expel others, regardless of their status or criminal record.
The last time a president invoked the law on extraterrestrial enemies, it was the Second World War, during which 31,000 foreigners allegedly mostly Japanese, Italian and German descent were placed in internment camps and military facilities. The law demands that the war be officially declared, or any “predatory invasion or foray” by a foreign nation or government.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward in a legal action sought on Saturday to block the deportations of five Venezuelan men for 14 days, and then extended the request to all the people who could be expelled under the proclamation “Alien Enemies Act” of Trump.
Judge James Boasberg of the Washington American District Court, DC, agreed to block the deportations of the five men on Saturday. He then extended the order to anyone covered by the proclamation of Trump. Another hearing in the case is scheduled for March 21.
The Trump administration has already called upon the judge’s decisions at the American Court of Appeal for the Columbia district circuit.
Lee Genernt, the Senior Aclu lawyer on the case, said that the use of the Administration of the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies is illegal because it is up to the Congress to declare a state of war which allows the detention of so-called “foreign foreign”.
“The extraterrestrial enemies law cannot be used during peacetime for regular immigration application,” said Genernt. “Congress was very clear in the status that it can only be used against a foreign government or a foreign nation. It has never been used in our country in peacetime, even less against a gang.”
Beyond the question of the president’s authority, Genernt also wondered if the hundreds expelled to El Salvador were in fact gang members.
“These people did not get an audience to show that they are not a gang members,” said Genernt.
El Salvador accepts the deportees
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, Salvador, on February 3, 2025.
Mark Schiefelbein / Pool / AP / AFP via Getty Images
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Mark Schiefelbein / Pool / AP / AFP via Getty Images
Bukele, president of El Salvador, published a video on Sunday of what he said to be 238 members of Tren from Aragua arriving in Salvador. He said they would be transferred to Cecot, the country’s terrorism confinement center for a period of one year.
On Sunday, the government of El Salvador shared dozens of photos showing handcuffed and kneeling men, surrounded by guards, after shaving his head.
El Salvador used CECOC “Mega Prison“to wander alleged gang members as part of a broader repression This allows the police to have anyone they suspect of having gang affiliations, even without proof.
Rubio, the American Secretary of State, last month said the president of El Salvador had agreed to accept the deportees of the United States of all nationality. On Sunday, publications on Bukele’s social networks refer to “very low costs” that the United States paid in Salvador for deportations.
“Thank you for your help and friendship, President Bukele,” said Rubio on social networks on Sunday. El Salvador has agreed to keep people expelled “in their very good prisons at a fair price which will also allow our dollars taxpayers,” Rubio added.
NPR Eyder Peralta And Danielle Kurtzleben contributed to this story.
