Despite Judge’s Order, Trump Administration Proceeds with Migrant Deportations
Despite a federal judge’s order temporarily halting deportations under an 18th-century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, the Trump administration transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador, according to officials on Sunday. The flights were already en route when the ruling was issued.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued the order on Saturday, but lawyers informed him that two planes carrying migrants were already airborne – one to El Salvador and the other to Honduras. Although Boasberg verbally instructed that the planes be turned around, this was not done, and the directive was not included in his written order.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, an ally of Trump who agreed to house approximately 300 migrants for a year in his country’s prisons at a cost of $6 million, posted “Oopsie…Too late” on X, a social media platform, above an article discussing Boasberg’s ruling. White House communications director Steven Cheung shared that post.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who previously negotiated a deal with Bukele to house migrants, posted on the site: “We sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars.”
The deportations occurred after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law that has been used only three times in U.S. history.
The law, used during World Wars I and II and the War of 1812, mandates a presidential declaration of war, granting the president broad authority to detain or remove foreign nationals who would otherwise be protected by immigration or criminal laws. It was last used to justify the internment of Japanese-American civilians during World War II.
The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit leading to Boasberg’s temporary restraining order on deportations, stated it was seeking clarification from the government regarding whether the removals to El Salvador violated the court’s order.
ACLU’s lead lawyer, Lee Gelernt, said in a statement on Sunday, “This morning, we asked the government to assure the Court that its order was not violated and are waiting to hear, as well as trying to do our own investigation.”
A Justice Department spokesperson referred to an earlier statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi criticizing Boasberg’s ruling and did not immediately respond to inquiries about whether the administration disregarded the court’s order.
The Venezuelan government issued a statement on Sunday rejecting Trump’s invocation of the law, describing it as reminiscent of “the darkest episodes in human history, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.”
Tren de Aragua originated in a notoriously lawless prison in the central state of Aragua and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, most of whom sought better living conditions after their nation’s economy collapsed last decade. Trump used the gang during his campaign to create misleading portrayals of communities he claimed were “taken over” by a small number of lawbreakers.
The Trump administration has not identified the deported migrants, presented evidence that they are members of Tren de Aragua, or shown that they committed crimes in the U.S. It did also send two top members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang to El Salvador who had been arrested in the United States.
Video released by the El Salvadoran government on Sunday showed men disembarking planes onto an airport tarmac guarded by officers in riot gear. The men, with their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers forced their heads down.
The video also depicted the men being transported to prison in a convoy of buses, escorted by police and military vehicles and a helicopter. The men were shown kneeling on the ground while their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison uniform – knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs – and placed in cells.
The migrants were taken to the CECOT facility, central to Bukele’s efforts to stabilize his once violent country through strict police measures and limitations on basic rights.
The Trump administration stated that the president signed the proclamation asserting Tren de Aragua was invading the United States on Friday night but did not announce it until Saturday afternoon. Immigration lawyers reported that on Friday, they noticed Venezuelans who otherwise couldn’t be deported under immigration law being moved to Texas for deportation flights and began filing lawsuits to stop the transfers.
Adam Isacson of the Washington Office for Latin America, a human rights group, cautioned on X, “Basically any Venezuelan citizen in the US may be removed on pretext of belonging to Tren de Aragua, with no chance at defense.”
The litigation that resulted in the deportation hold was filed on behalf of five Venezuelans detained in Texas who lawyers said were concerned they would be falsely accused of gang membership. They warned that once the act is invoked, Trump could declare anyone a member of Tren de Aragua and remove them from the country.
Boasberg initially blocked the deportations of those five Venezuelans on Saturday morning when the suit was filed but expanded it to include all individuals in federal custody who could be targeted by the act after his afternoon hearing. He noted that the law has never been used outside of a congressionally-declared war and that plaintiffs could successfully argue that Trump exceeded his legal authority by invoking it.
The deportation ban is in effect for up to 14 days, during which the migrants will remain in federal custody. Boasberg has scheduled a hearing for Friday to hear further arguments in the case.
He stated that he had to act because the migrants whose deportations may violate the constitution deserved the opportunity to have their pleas heard in court.
“Once they’re out of the country,” Boasberg said, “there’s little I could do.”
—Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela contributed to this report.