US deports hundreds of Venezuelans despite court order

A plane carrying more than 200 Venezuelans deported by the US landed in El Salvador, hours after a US judge ordered the Trump administration not to do so.

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, wrote on social media that 238 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had arrived, along with 23 members of the international MS-13 gang, on Sunday morning.

Their arrival in the central American nation came after a federal judge blocked US President Donald Trump from invoking a centuries-old wartime law to justify the deportations – something Bukele made fun of in a later post.

“Oopsie… Too late,” he said.

The move by the US to send alleged criminals from other countries to El Salvador was an arrangement US Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously called “the most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world”.

Bukele wrote that the detainees were immediately transferred to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) “for a period of one year”, something that was “renewable” – suggesting they could be held there for longer.

“The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us,” he added.

Rubio confirmed the alleged gang members arrival in El Salvador and thanked Bukele, calling him “the strongest security leader in our region”.

Hours before, on Saturday evening, US District Judge James Boasberg ordered a halt to deportations covered by Trump’s proclamation, which invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The law allows the government to detain and deport people threatening the country’s safety without due process.

Venezuela criticised invoking the wartime measure, saying it “unjustly criminalises Venezuelan migration”.

After hearing that planes with deportees had taken off, Judge Boasberg ordered them turned back, the Washington Post reported.

The newly-built maximum-security jail is a proud achievement of Bukele’s, and part of his effort to crack down on the country’s organised crime.

The facility, which can hold up to 40,000 people, has been criticised by human rights groups for maltreatment of inmates.

SOURCE: BBC