Rubio announces deportations day after judge blocks using Alien Enemies Act
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Sunday that hundreds of members of the Tren de Aragua gang have been deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, even as a federal judge ordered the removals to be temporarily stopped.
“Under the President’s direction, his administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to initiate the removal of hundreds of dangerous members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a vicious and violent Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), which has been threatening our nation, conducting irregular warfare, and terrorizing Americans,” Rubio said in a statement Sunday.
“Hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country. This crucial step would have never happened under any other U.S. president. President Trump is following through on the promises he made to the American people,” he added.
Rubio’s announcement comes a day after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to halt deportations for individuals deemed eligible for removal under Trump’s order for 14 days, as a result of the lawsuit filed by Democracy Forward and the American Civil Liberties Union.
But Boasberg, in a virtual hearing on Saturday, signaled that two planes with immigrants were in the air already, at the time of the order — one headed for El Salvador and the other for Honduras, The Associated Press reported.
Boasberg verbally ordered that the planes be turned around, according to the AP, but they apparently were not, and the directive was not included in the written order.
“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg told Justice Department officials on Saturday.
The Trump administration formally acknowledged the flight to Boasberg in a Sunday court filing but insisted the plane had already left U.S. territory by the time he issued his order.
"Federal Defendants further report, based on information from the Department of Homeland Security, that some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory under the Proclamation before the issuance of this Court’s second order," the Justice Department wrote.
The immigrants were deported under an agreement Rubio negotiated with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who agreed to imprison the deported alleged gang members in exchange for the U.S. returning two top leaders of MS-13 and 21 of its most wanted alleged criminals “to face justice in their homeland,” according to Rubio.
“President Bukele has shown he is not only the strongest security leader in our region, he’s also a great friend of the United States,” Rubio said in a statement, thanking Bukele for “playing a pivotal role in this transfer.”
Updated at 5:18 pm EDT.
Zach Schonfeld contributed.
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