US deports hundreds of Venezuelans despite court order
US deports Venezuelans
More than 200 Venezuelans alleged to be gang members have been deported from the United States to a supermax prison in El Salvador, despite a federal judge’s order temporarily blocking the removals.
El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced on social media that 238 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, along with 23 members of the international MS-13 gang, arrived in the country on Sunday morning.
Neither the US government nor El Salvador has identified the individuals or provided evidence supporting claims of criminality or gang affiliations.
The deportations came just hours after US District Judge James Boasberg issued a 14-day halt to removals under a presidential proclamation signed by President Donald Trump. The Trump administration had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, accusing Tren de Aragua of “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion of predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.”
However, the judge’s order was issued after the flights had already taken off. President Bukele appeared to mock the timing of the ruling, posting on social media: “Oopsie… Too late.” A video attached to one of his posts showed shackled individuals being escorted off planes by armed officials.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected claims that the administration had ignored the court order. “The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” she said. “The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from US territory.”
Reports from US media indicated that Judge Boasberg gave a verbal directive for the flights to return, though this instruction was not included in his written ruling. According to Reuters, the written notice appeared in the case docket at 19:25 EDT on Saturday, but it remains unclear exactly when the flights departed.
According to BBC, in a court filing on Sunday, Department of Justice lawyers argued that the judge’s ruling was moot because the deportees “had already been removed from United States territory.” A senior administration official told CBS News that 261 people were deported on Saturday, with 137 removed under the Alien Enemies Act over alleged gang connections. The Justice Department has since appealed the court’s decision.
Rights groups have sharply criticised the deportations and Trump’s use of the centuries-old law. Amnesty International USA described the removals as “yet another example of the Trump administration’s racist targeting” of Venezuelans “based on sweeping claims of gang affiliation.”
Venezuela condemned the move, accusing the US of “unjustly criminalising Venezuelan migration” and invoking comparisons to “the darkest episodes in the history of humanity, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.”
President Bukele confirmed that the deportees were transferred immediately to the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), a controversial mega-prison in El Salvador with a capacity of 40,000. He stated that they would be held for “a period of one year”, which could be “renewable”.
The deportation arrangement underscores strengthening ties between the US and El Salvador. The country was the second stop for top US diplomat Marco Rubio during a diplomatic tour in February, during which Bukele first offered to take deportees and help offset the costs of Cecot.
The move marks a continuation of President Trump’s campaign against illegal immigration. In January, he signed an executive order designating Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organisations. While illegal border crossings have dropped to historic lows since he took office, Trump has reportedly grown impatient with the pace of deportations despite promising the largest removal operation in US history.
