US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador on Feb. 3, 2025.
Mark Schiefelbein/Pool/AP/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
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Mark Schiefelbein/Pool/AP/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
The Trump administration deported greater than 200 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan jail gang, to El Salvador this weekend, a number of members of the Trump administration mentioned on social media on Sunday.
It was not instantly clear if the deportations occurred earlier than or after a federal choose in D.C. on Saturday issued an emergency order that informed the administration to cease utilizing wartime powers to deport anybody, and switch round any planes already within the air.
President Trump on Saturday issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a seldom-used legislation that offers the president authority to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation throughout wartime. It is the primary time the act has been used since World Conflict II.
“Due to the good work of the Division of State, these heinous monsters had been extracted and eliminated to El Salvador the place they’ll now not have the ability to pose any risk to the American Folks,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned in an announcement.
The deportations to El Salvador additionally included 2 alleged leaders of the MS-13 gang, which has its origins in El Salvador, and 21 different members of the gang, in accordance with posts from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and from El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.
“Ooopsie… too late,” Bukele posted, in response to a information headline in regards to the judicial order.
Bukele posted a video on Sunday of what he says is 238 members of Tren de Aragua arriving in El Salvador. He mentioned they might be transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Heart within the nation, for a interval of 1 yr.
Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, final month mentioned El Salvador’s president had agreed to just accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality. Bukele’s social media posts on Sunday check with “a really low payment” that america paid to El Salvador for the deportations.
“Thanks to your help and friendship, President Bukele,” Rubio mentioned on social media on Sunday.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Ahead in a lawsuit on Saturday sought to dam the deportations of 5 Venezuelan males for 14 days, and later broadened the request to all individuals who could possibly be deported underneath Trump’s “Alien Enemies Act” proclamation. Choose James Boasberg agreed to dam the deportations of the 5 males. He later broadened the order to anybody coated by Trump’s proclamation. One other listening to within the case is about for March 21.
The Trump administration has already appealed the choose’s rulings to the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
