(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Trump administration successfully deported hundreds of violent Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador on Saturday, in opposition to an activist judge’s attempt to keep them on U.S. soil.
The deported illegal aliens—all accused members of the Tren de Aragua gang—were removed under President Donald Trump’s invocation of the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to cease all ongoing deportations and mandated that any flights carrying illegal aliens be returned to the U.S., according to Axios.
However, the order did not stop the flight carrying 200 illegal aliens bound for El Salvador, as Boasberg’s ruling allegedly lacked jurisdiction over international waters. The White House also maintained that the judge’s mandate exceeded his authority.
“This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we’re going to win,” a White House official told Axios.
The ACLU, backed by media support from the Democratic Party, launched legal action challenging Trump’s enactment of the Alien Enemies Act, claiming that he plans to use it unlawfully to expedite the deportation of illegal aliens.
“The Trump administration’s intent to use a wartime authority for immigration enforcement is as unprecedented as it is lawless. It may be the administration’s most extreme measure yet, and that is saying a lot,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt in a press statement.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dared Democrats to further support the lawsuit, which explicitly sides with some of the most violent gang members in the U.S.
“If the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that’s a fight we are more than happy to take,” Leavitt told Axios.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shared a video on X showing the illegal aliens being removed from an airplane and loaded into police trucks before being transported to high-security prisons.
In another post, Bukele trolled Boasberg’s ruling that demanded that flights be returned to the U.S.
“Oopsie… Too late,” he wrote, along with a laughing emoji and a screenshot of a New York Post headline about the order.
Oopsie…
Too late 😂 pic.twitter.com/nDHL6deLJq
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 16, 2025
Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said that Boasberg’s verbal directive to turn around the planes was not technically part of his final order but that the Trump administration clearly violated the “spirit” of it.
The immigrants were deported after Trump’s declaration of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has been used only three times in U.S. history.
The litigation that led to the hold on deportations was filed on behalf of five Venezuelans held in Texas who lawyers said were concerned they’d be falsely accused of being members of the gang. Once the act is invoked, they warned, Trump could simply declare anyone a Tren de Aragua member and remove them from the country.
Boasberg barred those Venezuelans’ deportations Saturday morning when the suit was filed, but only broadened it to all people in federal custody who could be targeted by the act after his afternoon hearing. He noted that the law has never before been used outside of a congressionally declared war and that plaintiffs may successfully argue Trump exceeded his legal authority in invoking it.
The bar on deportations stands for up to 14 days and the immigrants will remain in federal custody during that time. Boasberg has scheduled a hearing Friday to hear additional arguments in the case.
He said he had to act because the immigrants whose deportations may actually violate the U.S. Constitution deserved a chance to have their pleas heard in court.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
