The Trump administration on Sunday sent a fourth plane carrying deportees to El Salvador, claiming it was acting under a different authority than the obscure wartime law that it cited previously, prompting a federal judge to block the transfers.
Administration officials said all 17 men, whom they described as gang members, had been deported under regular U.S. immigration law and had final orders of removal. But the administration described the action in similar military terms as the earlier transfers, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Joe Kasper, the Pentagon’s chief of staff, both calling the deportations ”counterterrorism” operations.
Mr. Rubio said in a statement on Monday the U.S. military had transported 17 “violent criminals,” including “murderers and rapists” with gang affiliations, to El Salvador. Mr. Kasper, the Pentagon’s chief of staff, said the deportations were “a successful counterterrorism mission” carried out by the U.S. military in partnership with El Salvador.
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said in a social media post that the two countries had conducted a “joint military operation” and claimed that all the migrants “are confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders.” The post included a video showing men in restraints being led off a U.S. Air Force plane at night.
On Monday, President Trump reposted Mr. Bukele’s announcement on his social media platform, Truth Social, thanking El Salvador “for taking the criminals” and blaming former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for allowing them to enter the United States. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, later said on Fox News that Mr. Bukele told her during a meeting last week that he was “absolutely” ready to continue taking in America’s deportees, including what Ms. Noem called “the worst of the worst.”
Seven of the men are Venezuelan citizens, while the other 10 are Salvadoran citizens, according to a senior State Department official, who was not authorized to discuss the details of the deportations and spoke on condition of anonymity. The migrants had briefly been held at the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before they were flown to a large prison in El Salvador.
The official said the deportees were removed under the executive branch’s traditional legal authority to enforce immigration laws against illegal entry, not the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime measure that Mr. Trump had invoked earlier this month to expel members of the Tren de Aragua gang, arguing they were part of a “predatory incursion” sponsored by the Venezuelan government. Those deportations are being challenged in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Administration officials said the men were members of either Tren de Aragua or MS-13, a gang founded by Salvadoran immigrants. According to a list furnished by a White House official, each of them has either been convicted or accused of a crime that would make them eligible for deportation, including murder, manslaughter, assault and theft.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the administration has broad authority to deport migrants present in the United States illegally, if they have been given deportation orders through the immigration courts. According to the official, all had final removal orders for deportation.
The government can also deport any noncitizen, regardless of whether they are present in the United States legally, if they have committed a serious crime, such as murder or sexual assault. Congress recently expanded the list of crimes for which a person can be eligible for deportation and mandated that they can face removal even for simply being charged with those crimes.
The latest deportations are expected to prompt a response from the same groups that have sued Mr. Trump’s administration over its recent efforts rapidly deport some unauthorized immigrants, primarily Venezuelans, and its use of Guantánamo Bay as a holding facility for individuals with removal orders against them
Earlier this month, the Trump administration sent three civilian planes carrying more than 200 deportees to a prison in El Salvador, claiming the Alien Enemies Act gave the president the right to do so. The episode has raised questions over whether the Trump administration defied a judge’s order.
The judge in the case, James. E Boasberg, issued a ruling from the bench ordering the administration to temporarily halt the deportations and to turn the planes carrying the migrants back to the United States if necessary. The planes did not turn around.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the only binding order was a subsequent written one that did not contain any specific direction to divert planes already in the air. They have also argued that the court had no right to review the government’s actions and have refused to tell Judge Boasberg key details of the operation, while seeking to have him thrown off the case.
The Air Force plane that carried the deportees to El Salvador, a C-17, had been clearly visible as it traveled to Guantánamo Bay on Sunday, according to flight tracking data, but it was not immediately apparent when the plane made the flight to El Salvador.
In a separate case, lawyers representing the families of migrants who believed they were at risk of being sent to Guantánamo failed earlier this month to convince a federal judge to issue an emergency order halting that practice.
Over the weekend, a group of Democrats issued a statement condemning the administration’s use of Guantánamo after touring the facilities there.
“It is obvious that Guantánamo Bay is a likely illegal and certainly illogical location to detain immigrants,” said Senators Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Gary Peters of Michigan, and Alex Padilla of California, and Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “Its use is seemingly designed to undermine due process and evade legal scrutiny.”
John Ismay and Alan Feuer contributed reporting from Washington. Gabriel Labrador contributed reporting from San Salvador.
