The US has deported over 250 mainly Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador despite a ruling by a court to halt the flights on Saturday after President Donald Trump controversially invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law meant only to be used in wartime.
El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele, said 238 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 have arrived in the Central American country and were in custody as part of a deal under which the US will pay El Salvador to hold them in its “terrorism confinement centre”, reported The Guardian.
The confirmation came hours after a US federal judge extended the ruling temporarily blocking the Trump administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act. The legislation, a wartime authority, allows the president broad leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations.
The US district judge James Boasberg attempted to withhold the deportations for all individuals deemed eligible for removal under Trump’s proclamation, issued on Friday. The judge also ordered deportation flights already in the air to return to the US.
Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable).
The United States will pay a very low fee for them,… pic.twitter.com/tfsi8cgpD6
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 16, 2025
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‘Oopsie…Too Late’
Bukele has fully sided with the Trump administration on the matter. Reacting to the news of the US judge ordering the deportation flights to return to the US, the 43-year-old president said, “Oopsie…Too late” on social media with a laughing emoji.
The US Secretary of state, Marc Rubio, thanked Bukele: “Thank you for your assistance and friendship, President Bukele,” he wrote on the social media site X.”
In an earlier social media post, Rubio said the US had sent “2 dangerous top MS-13 leaders plus 21 of its most wanted back to face justice in El Salvador”.
He further said that “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”.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act on Friday to order the deportations of suspected members of the Venezuelan gang he has accused of “unlawfully infiltrating” the US. Washington had formally designated Tren de Aragua a “foreign terrorist organization” last month.
