White House defends deportations of 200 alleged gang members to a notorious mass prison in El Salvador under the controversial Alien Enemies Act
The US has deported more than 200 mainly Venezuelan alleged gang members to a sprawling prison in El Salvador, even as a federal judge ordered their return.
The White House said in a statement that it was not defying the court but at the same time argued that it was perfectly within its rights to ignore Judge James Boasberg’s ruling.
“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from US soil,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
She said the court had “no lawful basis” and that federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over how a president conducts foreign affairs.
Boasberg, a federal judge in Washington DC, had earlier blocked Donald Trump’s application of the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century law best known for its use in rounding up US residents of Japanese descent and placing them in internment camps without trial during World War II.
Trump had sought to use the Act’s seldom-used wartime powers to rapidly deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that has been linked to kidnapping, extortion and contract killings.
In a Saturday evening hearing, judge Boasberg blocked the use of the law for 14 days, saying the statute refers to “hostile acts” perpetrated by another country that are “commensurate to war.”
During the hearing, Boasberg said that any flights carrying migrants processed under the law should return to the U.S.
His written notice hit the case docket at 7:25 pm ET (23:25 GMT).
Footage published by the Salvadoran government showed men being hustled off a plane in the dark of night amid a massive security presence.
The video also showed the men being transported to prison in a large convoy of buses guarded by police and military vehicles and at least one helicopter.
The men were shown kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform — knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs — and placed in cells.
“Oopsie… Too late,” El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele posted to the social media site X above a headline, “Fed judge orders deportation flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gangbangers to return to the US.”
Bukele followed the comment by a laughing-so-hard-I’m-crying emoji.
His statement was reposted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who later thanked Bukele for his “assistance and friendship.”
Patrick Eddington, a homeland security and civil liberties legal expert at the libertarian Cato Institute told Reuters the White House was in “open defiance” of the judge.
“This is beyond the pale and certainly unprecedented,” Eddington said, calling it the most radical test of America’s system of checks and balances since the Civil War.
In a court filing on Sunday, the Trump administration said that “some” of the Venezuelans had already been removed from the United States prior to the judge’s order, but did not provide any further detail or comment. It was not clear how many people that it represented or under what circumstances they had been deported.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged Trump’s use of the act, has asked the administration to ensure that it has not removed any migrants in violation of the order, lead ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt told the Reuters news agency.
“If anyone was turned over to a foreign government after the court’s order, then we would hope that the United States government would work with that foreign government to get the individuals back,” Gelernt said.
The US Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Salvadoran government did not respond to requests for comment.
The 238 men – alleged members of the Venezuelan gang – were being transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center – a mega-prison that can hold up to 40,000 inmates – for a one-year period that could be renewed, Bukele said