MS-13 Leaders Among 250 Deported As Trump Uses Wartime Powers to Expel Gang Members!

The Trump administration deported about 250 people who it says are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang, to El Salvador this weekend, multiple members of the administration said on social media on Sunday.

It was not immediately clear if the deportations happened before or after a federal judge in D.C. on Saturday issued an emergency order that told the administration to stop using wartime powers to immediately deport people, and turn around any planes already in the air. 

Senior Justice Department officials in a filing on Sunday argued that the order came too late to stop the deportations, as planes were already outside U.S. territory.

President Trump on Saturday issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against Tren de Aragua. The seldom-used law gives the president authority to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime or invasion. It's the first time the act has been used since World War II.

The deportations to El Salvador also included two alleged leaders of the MS-13 gang, which wasn't included in Saturday's action, and 21 other members of the gang, according to posts from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and from El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

MS-13 started in Los Angeles in the 1980s, but many of its members also operate in El Salvador and the Trump administration has also designated it as a foreign terrorist organization.

"Thanks to the great work of the Department of State, these heinous monsters were extracted and removed to El Salvador where they will no longer be able to pose any threat to the American People," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

With the migrants now in El Salvador, it's unclear what jurisdiction U.S. courts have over them. 

The Alien Enemies Act allows an expedited removal process, which means those subject to the president's declaration would not go through the normal immigration proceedings in court, or be able to claim asylum. The proclamation also leaves no time to contest the government's claims that people are members of a criminal gang.

El Salvador accepts deportees:

Bukele, El Salvador's president, posted a video on Sunday of what he said was 238 members of Tren de Aragua arriving in El Salvador. He said they would be transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center in the country, for a period of one year.

El Salvador's government on Sunday shared dozens of photos showing men handcuffed and kneeling, surrounded by guards, after having their heads shaved.

El Salvador has used the CECOT "mega prison" to imprison alleged gang members as part of a broader crackdown that allows police to detain anyone they suspect of having gang affiliations, even without evidence.

Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, last month said El Salvador's president had agreed to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality. Bukele's social media posts on Sunday refer to "a very low fee" that the United States paid to El Salvador for the deportations.

"Thank you for your assistance and friendship, President Bukele," Rubio said on social media on Sunday. El Salvador agreed to hold the people deported "in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars," Rubio added.