Updated March 16, 2025 at 17:59 PM ET
The Trump administration deported about 250 people who it says are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang, to El Salvador this weekend, multiple members of the administration said on social media on Sunday.
It was not immediately clear if the deportations happened before or after a federal judge in D.C. on Saturday issued an emergency order that told the administration to stop using wartime powers to immediately deport people, and turn around any planes already in the air. Senior Justice Department officials in a filing on Sunday argued that the order came too late to stop the deportations, as planes were already outside U.S. territory.
President Trump on Saturday issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against Tren de Aragua. The seldom-used law gives the president authority to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime or invasion. It's the first time the act has been used since World War II.
The deportations to El Salvador also included two alleged leaders of the MS-13 gang, which wasn't included in Saturday's action, and 21 other members of the gang, according to posts from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and from El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
MS-13 started in Los Angeles in the 1980s, but many of its members also operate in El Salvador and the Trump administration has also designated it as a foreign terrorist organization.
"Thanks to the great work of the Department of State, these heinous monsters were extracted and removed to El Salvador where they will no longer be able to pose any threat to the American People," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
"Ooopsie… too late," Bukele posted, in response to a news headline about the judicial order.
With the migrants now in El Salvador, it's unclear what jurisdiction U.S. courts have over them. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the timing of when the planes landed, or whether any migrants could be returned to the U.S. in response to the court's order.
Government lawyers on Sunday wrote that "some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory" by the time of the judge's order at 7:26 p.m. on Saturday, which sought to block immediate deportations. The court filing was signed by the top Justice Department leaders, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The Alien Enemies Act allows an expedited removal process, which means those subject to the president's declaration would not go through the normal immigration proceedings in court, or be able to claim asylum. The proclamation also leaves no time to contest the government's claims that people are members of a criminal gang.
Wendy Ramos, a spokesperson for El Salvador's presidency, told NPR that El Salvador didn't have any details about the people deported, including whether they were convicted of a crime in the U.S.
The law requires an "invasion or predatory incursion"
Immigrant rights advocates fear that invoking the act would also open the door for targeting and deporting others, regardless of their status or criminal records.
The last time a president invoked the Alien Enemies Act was WWII, during which 31,000 suspected enemy aliens of mostly Japanese, Italian and German descent were placed in internment camps and military facilities. The law requires war to be formally declared, or any "invasion or predatory incursion" by a foreign nation or government.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward in a lawsuit on Saturday sought to block the deportations of five Venezuelan men for 14 days, and later broadened the request to all people who could be deported under Trump's "Alien Enemies Act" proclamation.
Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., agreed to block the deportations of the five men on Saturday. He later broadened the order to anyone covered by Trump's proclamation. Another hearing in the case is set for March 21.
The Trump administration has already appealed the judge's rulings to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Lee Gelernt, the ACLU's lead counsel on the case, said the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act is illegal because it's up to Congress to declare a state of war that allows detention of so-called "foreign aliens."
"The Alien Enemies Act cannot be used during peace time for regular immigration enforcement," Gelernt said. "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."
Beyond the question of the president's authority, Gelernt also questioned whether the hundreds deported to El Salvador were in fact gang members.
"These individuals did not get a hearing to show they're not members of a gang," Gelernt said.
El Salvador accepts deportees
Bukele, El Salvador's president, posted a video on Sunday of what he said was 238 members of Tren de Aragua arriving in El Salvador. He said they would be transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center in the country, for a period of one year.
El Salvador's government on Sunday shared dozens of photos showing men handcuffed and kneeling, surrounded by guards, after having their heads shaved.
El Salvador has used the CECOT "mega prison" to imprison alleged gang members as part of a broader crackdown that allows police to detain anyone they suspect of having gang affiliations, even without evidence.
Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, last month said El Salvador's president had agreed to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality. Bukele's social media posts on Sunday refer to "a very low fee" that the United States paid to El Salvador for the deportations.
"Thank you for your assistance and friendship, President Bukele," Rubio said on social media on Sunday. El Salvador agreed to hold the people deported "in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars," Rubio added.
NPR's Eyder Peralta and Danielle Kurtzleben contributed to this story.
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