After a judge temporarily delayed the move on Saturday, Trump administration officials said on Sunday that hundreds of immigrants, whom the White House claims are members of a Venezuelan gang, will be deported to El Salvador under the wartime Alien Enemies Act.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, “The president used this power to deport almost 300 of them who are currently in El Salvador, where they will be imprisoned where they belong, instead of wandering freely in American communities.”
In a post on X Sunday night, Vice President JD Vance also mentioned that President Donald Trump had deported “violent criminals and rapists.”
The Alien Enemies Act permits the government to deport certain nationals during times of war without trial, so it is unclear how the government decided the nearly 300 men were members of the gang or whether they had U.S. court hearings or immigration hearings. On Saturday, a judge ordered any deportation flights carrying anyone subject to the presidential proclamation to return to the United States if they were currently in flight; however, the ruling did not apply to migrants who had already landed in foreign countries prior to the court order or those who were being removed from the country for reasons unrelated to Trump’s proclamation.
In a brief on Sunday afternoon, the government claimed that prior to the court decision, “some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory.” However, it’s unclear if the Trump administration disregarded the order or if some of the deportees had actually arrived in El Salvador prior to the judge’s decision.
According to Leavitt’s statement on Sunday, the judge’s decision to prohibit all deportation flights under Trump’s proclamation was made after “terrorist [Tren De Aragua] aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.” He denied that the White House disregarded the court order.
“There is no conflict between the written order and the Administration’s actions,” Leavitt stated. “Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear — federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion.”
In an overnight brief, the plaintiffs requested that the judge order the government to furnish additional information regarding the date of the flights and the deportees’ custody transfer.
Two top Trump administration officials told NBC News that they think the administration will prevail in the legal battle over the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, which is expected to end up at the Supreme Court.
Trump attempted to deport individuals he said were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua on Saturday by citing the rarely utilized Alien Enemies Act of 1798. However, before he made his announcement, Democracy Forward and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the administration, claiming it was planning to deport five Venezuelan men under the Alien Enemies Act.
In order to stop the administration from deporting the five men under the Alien Enemies Act, a federal judge first issued a temporary restraining order. Later, the judge barred the use of the act to deport all non-citizens who were in detention and under Trump’s proclamation.
James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., stated on Saturday that “any plane that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.” “Those individuals must be brought back to the United States.”
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, two planes carrying Venezuelans were in route when the judge rendered her decision. NBC News was unable to verify if the flights reversed course after the directive.
According to an NBC News investigation of flight monitoring databases, a blue “Global X” plane departed Harlingen, Texas, on Saturday afternoon and touched down at El Salvador International Airport around an hour after the judge’s decision. On Sunday, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele uploaded a video on X that seemed to show a number of deportees being removed from a blue “Global X” aircraft and placed under the guard of highly armed Salvadoran officials.
