El Salvador

Agence France-Presse

<p>SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- The United States flew over 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to be imprisoned in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele said Sunday, after US counterpart Donald Trump invoked wartime legislation to expel the migrants.</p><p>The deportations took place despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsions order, apparently as planes were already headed to El Salvador.</p><p>&quot;Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country,&quot; Bukele said Sunday morning on X, sharing a video of several men in handcuffs and shackles being transferred from a plane to a heavily guarded convoy.</p><p>Trump signed an order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on Friday, but it was not publicly announced until Saturday.</p><p>The wartime authority allows a president to detain or deport citizens of an enemy nation, and has been invoked only three times before -- during major international conflicts, including World War I and II.</p><p>Bukele, in a meeting last month with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had offered to house prisoners from the United States in his country, including members of Tren de Aragua and Salvador&#x27;s own MS-13 gang.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/1/30/trump-revives-manifest-destiny-dreams-of-us-territorial-expansion-1026">READ: Trump revives &#x27;Manifest Destiny&#x27; dreams of US territorial expansion</a></div><div><strong>- Mega-jail with windowless cells -</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ob5WKgodV0Y?autoplay=1&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>The iron-fisted leader is extremely popular in his Latin American country for a successful crackdown on violent gangs, but has faced criticism from human rights groups.</p><p>His offer to take in foreign convicts for a fee has divided Salvadorans, who fear it could set back the country&#x27;s efforts to fight violent crime.</p><p>Bukele said the alleged gang members had been sent to the country&#x27;s maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison on the edge of a jungle 75 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of San Salvador with capacity for 40,000 prisoners.</p><p>Inmates at the prison are packed in windowless cells, sleep on metal beds with no mattresses and are forbidden from having visitors.</p><p>Rubio said in a separate statement Sunday that &quot;hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador for playing a pivotal role in this transfer,&quot; Rubio said.</p><p>He added that as part of the transfer, the United States had also deported &quot;top leaders&quot; of MS-13, &quot;plus 21 of its most wanted to face justice in their homeland.&quot;</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/2/4/immigrants-built-america-protesters-unite-near-trump-tower-in-chicago-1123">&#x27;Immigrants built America&#x27;: Protesters unite near Trump Tower in Chicago</a></div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/3/7/trump-weighs-revoking-legal-status-for-240-000-ukrainians-1036">Trump weighs revoking legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians</a></div><div><strong>- Wartime legislation -</strong></div><p>Trump, in his order, claimed Tren de Aragua was &quot;conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime.&quot;</p><p>The statement gives Trump&#x27;s Attorney General Pam Bondi 60 days to enact the ruling making all Tren de Aragua gang members &quot;subject to immediate apprehension, detention and removal.&quot;</p><p>The detention and expulsion order will apply to all Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members who are over 14 and not naturalized US citizens or lawful permanent residents.</p><p>The ACLU and an allied group, Democracy Forward, asked the US District Court in Washington to bar the deportations -- arguing that the 1798 act was not intended for use in peacetime.</p><p>Judge James Boasberg on Saturday issued a 14-day halt to any deportation under the new order.</p><p>Bondi slammed the ruling, saying in a statement that it &quot;disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump&#x27;s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk.&quot;</p><p>The El Salvador prison where the alleged gang members were sent already houses some 15,000 members of the MS-13 and rival Salvadoran Barrio 18 gangs.</p><p>They were rounded up under a state of emergency imposed by Bukele after a surge in gang violence in 2022.</p><p>Some are serving sentences of over 200 years.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>The deportations took place despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsions order, apparently as planes were already headed to El Salvador.</p>

The deportations took place despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsions order, apparently as planes were already headed to El Salvador.

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US flies alleged gang members to El Salvador despite court block

US flies alleged gang members to El Salvador despite court block

Agence France-Presse,

Oscar Batres

Published Mar 17, 2025 01:25 AM PHT

Read More:

international news

El Salvador

United States

Venezuelan gang

Nayib Bukele

Donald Trump

deportation

Alien Enemies Act

Tren de Aragua

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