Washington DC, March 17, 2025 – The United States on Sunday deported hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members from Tren de Aragua to El Salvador after President Donald Trump invoked the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to expedite their deportation, CNN reported.
According to a CNN report, this came just before a federal judge issued a 14-day halt on the Trump administration’s ability to use the act, ordering any planes in the air carrying the deportees to return to the US.
The judge said the temporary restraining order would remain in effect for 14 days “or until further court order.” One person familiar with the matter said the planes were already in the air at the time of the judge’s ruling.
“Particularly given the plaintiffs’ information, unrebutted by the government, that flights are actively departing and planning to depart, I do not believe that I’m able to wait any longer,” said, US District Judge James Boasberg during the hearing.
“Any plane containing these folks that will take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that “hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country” after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act on Saturday.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later said that the Department of Homeland Security had arrested nearly 300 members of Tren de Aragua over the weekend.
Meanwhile, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele offered to imprison the alleged gang members in exchange for the return of two leaders of the MS-13 gang, as well as 21 other Salvadorans to “face justice in their homeland.”
The US will also pay USD 6 million to El Salvador to house the deportees. The El Salvador President said the money will help sustain the penitentiary system, which currently costs $200 million annually. Bukele also said the action will help law enforcement gather intelligence and apprehend MS-13 members.
The White House has designated the Venezuelan gang as a foreign terrorist organization and said in a presidential proclamation that many of them have “unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”
