Prison guards transferring alleged members of Venezuelen gang from US prison to El Salvadors terrorism confinement center in Tecoluca. Image credit: ALJAZEERA
(The Post Script)- The US administration has deported over 200 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang. Despite the court’s ruling, the gang will be imprisoned in El Salvador. A US federal judge ruled that a temporary suspension of the expulsion order should apply but was too late. Additionally planes were already filled with the members on their way to El Salvador.
According to President Nayib Bukele, this happened after an encounter with US President Donald Trump invoking wartime legislation to expel them. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government states that, the majority of the deported members were not criminals but were “dignified and honest workers.” And that by this action it has violated both US and international laws. The US president is going to pay for the imprisonment of the alleged gang members. However, the amount has been confirmed to be a relatively low fee but not specified as to how much.
On Friday, the US president invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The invoked wartime legislation authority allows a US president to detain or deport citizens of an enemy nation. However, this has been invoked only three thus far—during major international conflicts, including World War I and II.
However, the US administration is appealing the court order about the action. According to AL JAZEERA, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended the deportations, saying Trump was “using his core powers as president and commander-in-chief to defend the American people from an urgent threat.”
US District Judge James Boasberg said the temporary ruling by the court will remain in effect for 14 days “or until further order of the court.” Boasberg, during the hearing with information that the Plaines were already on air, said, “Particularly given the plaintiffs’ information, unrebutted by the government, that flights are actively departing and planning to depart, I do not believe that I’m able to wait any longer.” “Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.”
Meanwhile, Trump continues to defend his actions. He had the following to say to reporters on board Air Force One, “I can tell you this: these were bad people. That was a bad group of people, as I say.” When asked about whether his administration violated the court ruling, Trump replied, “You’d have to speak to the lawyers about that.”
In a statement, Leavitt also said Sunday that the administration did not violate the judge’s order because it was issued after the migrants in question had left the US. “The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist (Tren de Aragua) aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory. She insisted that there was no conflict between the administration’s actions and the written order. “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,” she added.
Lastly, Bukele is said to have requested that two leaders of the MS-13 gang, as well as 21 other Salvadorans being held in the US, be returned to “face justice in their homeland.”
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