Chuck Darwin<p>The US deported more than 250 mainly Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador<br>👉 despite a US judge’s ruling to halt the flights on Saturday <br>after Donald Trump controversially invoked the "Alien Enemies Act", <br>a 1798 law meant only to be used in wartime.</p><p>El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said 238 members of the Venezuelan gang "Tren de Aragua" and 23 members of the Salvadoran gang "MS-13" had arrived and were in custody as part of a deal under which the US will pay the Central American country to hold them in its 40,000-person capacity “terrorism confinement centre”.</p><p>The confirmation came hours AFTER a US federal judge expanded his ruling temporarily blocking the Trump administration from invoking the "Alien Enemies Act", <br>a wartime authority that allows the president broad leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations.</p><p>The US district judge <a href="https://c.im/tags/James" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>James</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Boasberg" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Boasberg</span></a> had attempted to halt the deportations for all individuals deemed eligible for removal under Trump’s proclamation, which was issued on Friday. <br>Boasberg also ordered deportation flights already in the air to return to the US.<br>❌“Oopsie … Too late,” Bukele posted online, followed by a laughing emoji.👹<br>Soon after Bukele’s statement, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, thanked El Salvador’s leader.</p><p>The Alien Enemies Act has only ever been used three times before, <br>most recently during the second world war, when it was used to incarcerate Germans and Italians as well as for the mass internment of Japanese-American civilians.</p><p>It was originally passed by Congress in preparation for what the US believed would be an impending war with France. </p><p>It was also used during the war of 1812 and during the first world war.</p><p>The US attorney general, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Pam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pam</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bondi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Bondi</span></a>, slammed Judge Boasberg’s stay on deportations. <br>“This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk,” Bondi said in a statement on Saturday night.</p><p>But lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union contend that the Trump does not have the authority to use the law against a criminal gang, rather than a recognized state.</p><p>On Sunday, the Republican senator Mike Rounds questioned <br>💥whether the deportation flights had ignored Judge Boasberg’s order to turn around. </p><p>“We’ll find out whether or not that actually occurred or not,” Rounds told CNN. <br>“I don’t know about the timing on it. I do know that we will follow the law.”<br><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/deportation-alleged-gang-members-el-salvador?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m</span><span class="invisible">ar/16/deportation-alleged-gang-members-el-salvador?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other</span></a></p>