As it wrangles with a federal judge over the removal of foreign nationals under the Alien Enemies Act, the Trump administration carried out new deportations of alleged criminal migrants over the weekend.
According to Semafor, the administration transferred 17 alleged MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gang members from the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to El Salvador.
In a post on X Monday morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the operation as a joint “counterterrorism” effort with the government of El Salvador.
“In order to keep the American people safe, @POTUS designated the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” Rubio wrote. “These criminals will no longer terrorize our communities and citizens.”
Citing a senior State Department official, Semafor reported that the alleged gang members were removed using other authorities, including Title 8 under immigration law.
Marking a shift from the Alien Enemies Act deportation flights to El Salvador earlier this month — when the alleged gang members’ names were not released — administration officials also provided the outlet with the names of each deported individual along with their criminal history details.
Several dozen migrants are reportedly still being detained at Guantanamo after the weekend operation.
The administration’s decision to conduct more deportation flights comes as it clashes with U.S. District Judge James Boasberg over President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg has set a hearing for 3 p.m. Thursday and ordered the Justice Department to explain how it did not violate the court’s temporary order restraining migrant removals.
Boasberg is trying to determine if the administration ignored his turnaround order this month when at least two flights of Venezuelan nationals were en route to El Salvador.
Meanwhile, border czar Tom Homan recently declared that he did not “care what the judges think” and vowed the flights would continue one way or another. He also said the administration will abide by all court orders as the legal challenges to its invocation of the Alien Enemies Act play out.
“We’re going to keep targeting the worst of the worst, which we’ve been doing since day one, and deporting them from the United States through the various laws on the book,” Homan told ABC’s “This Week.”
“We’re not making this up,” he said. “The Alien Enemies Act was actually a federal law; it’s a statute enacted by Congress and signed by a president. Now, that’s our litigation.”
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