The Trump administration has sent hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being members of the gang to prisons in El Salvador.
El Salvador President Naive Buquere marched into prison on Sunday, a three-minute video of a man handcuffed by a man, led by a plane in the middle of the night. The video also shows prison staff shaving the heads of prisoners.
“Today, Tren de Aragua, the first 238 members of Venezuelan criminal organization, has arrived in our country,” writes Buquel.
The Trump administration hopes an extraordinary prisoner relocation agreement – not an exchange, but an agreement that Salvador will take gang members – the beginning of a greater effort to quickly arrest and deport him as a member of Tren de Lagaa without much of the legal process common in immigration cases, using the Alien Enemy Act of 1798.
Alien Enemy Law allows for the summaries of people from countries at war with the United States. The law best known for its role in the detention of Japanese-Americans during World War II was called three times into US history in 1812, during the wars of World War I and World War II, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy organization.
On Saturday, Washington's U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the government from deporting immigrants under the law after President Trump issued an executive order calling it.
At a rushed, scheduled hearing called for by the US Civil Liberties Union, the judge said he did not believe federal law allowed the president to act, and flights departed with Venezuelan immigrants under Trump's executive order said, “But that doesn't matter whether they prefer planes or not.”
“This is something that needs to be followed immediately,” he said.
The government's representative lawyer is Drew Slight Sign, who told the judge that there is not much detail to share and that explains operational details will raise “national security issues.”
The exact timing of your flight to El Salvador is important. Judge Boasberg issued an order in Washington before 7pm, so a video posted from El Salvador shows him hanging out the plane at night. El Salvador is Washington's two time zones, raising doubts about whether the Trump administration ignored an explicit court order.
On Sunday, Mr. Bukel posted a screenshot on social media about Judge Boasberg's order, writing, “About…too late.”
Attorney General Pam Bondy said he was on his side Saturday night with “terrorists on American security,” criticising the judge in a statement that said his order “ignoring Trump's established authority on power and putting public and law enforcement at risk.”
Officials from both countries have said their contract with the Trump administration also includes the transfer of suspected members of the Salvadoran gangster MS-13, awaiting accusations in the United States.
“We faced justice in El Salvador with two dangerous top MS-13 leaders as well as their most wanted 21,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media on Sunday. Rubio added that “more than 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua” have also been sent to El Salvador.
Two of these MS-13 defendants have been charged as senior members of an international criminal organization.
The Trump administration faces the issue of deporting Venezuelans, with hundreds of thousands entering the United States in recent years amid a surge in immigration.
Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is one of the handfuls of the region where governments do not receive regular deportation flights from the United States due to the collapse of diplomatic relations. Since Trump took office, Maduro has been moving back and forth about whether the government will receive deported citizens.
Last month, the US sent a group of Venezuelans to a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, describing at least some of them as gang members. Then, on February 20th, the Trump administration suddenly repatriated all Venezuelan immigrants from their bases to move around Honduras.
El Salvador also presented its status as an option for deported Venezuelans. In early February, during Rubio's visit, Bukere offered to take deportees of nationalities, including convicted offenders.
Announced Buquere's offer at the time, Rubio said President Salvadora had agreed to jail “an illegal US alien who is a criminal of any nationality, whether from MS-13 or Tren de Lagua.”
Tim Bork Reports of contributions.
