US deports hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador despite court order

A plane carrying more than 200 Venezuelans deported by the US has landed in El Salvador – in apparent defiance of a US judge’s order preventing the Trump administration from doing 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 Mexican gang MS-13, on Sunday morning.

Their arrival in the central American nation came hours 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.

Bukele wrote that the detainees were immediately transferred to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center “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.

US Secretary of State Marco 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.

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

A video attached to one of Bukele’s social media post shows lines of people with their hands and feet shackled being escorted by armed officials from the plane.

It also shows some of the detainees placed into the back of armoured vehicles.

In January, Trump signed an executive order declaring Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organisations.