US Deport Hundreds of Alleged Venezuelan Gang Members

The United States on Sunday (local time) deported hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members from Tren de Aragua to El Salvador

The United States on Sunday (local time) deported several hundred alleged Venezuelan gang members from the 'Tren de Aragua' to El Salvador after President Donald Trump had invoked the 18th-century Aliens Enemies Act to speed up the deportation process, CNN reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

This came just before a federal judge issued a 14-day halt on the Trump administration's ability to use the act, ordering any planes in the air carrying the deportees to return back to the US.

The judge said the temporary restraining order would remain in effect for 14 days "or until further order of the court." One person familiar with the matter said the planes were already in the air at the time of the judge's decision, as reported by CNN.

"Particularly given the plaintiffs' information, un rebutted by the government, that flights are actively departing and planning to depart, I do not believe that I'm able to wait any longer," said US District Judge James Boasberg during the hearing.

"Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to return to the United States."

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups, who argued that the administration's planned use of the act to circumvent US immigration law and deport people to face "arbitrary detention" in their home countries was unconstitutional.

The administration had planned to begin rounding up and deporting several hundred alleged members of the 'Tren de Aragua' gang this weekend.

The White House had designated the Venezuelan gang as a foreign terrorist organization and said in a presidential proclamation that many of them have "unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States."

The administration also said that the gang members, who are largely in the US illegally, pose a "clear and present danger" to US citizens and that their presence in the US "endangers the instrumentalities of interstate commerce."

However, the ACLU said that the administration's planned use of the Aliens Enemies Act to carry out a mass deportation scheme was "unlawful and unconstitutional."

"This administration is attempting to use a 1798 law to carry out a 21st-century agenda of mass deportation and flout the will of Congress," said Laura L Title, cooperating attorney for the ACLU.

"But the courts have intervened to put a stop to this plan, which would flout US law and treaty obligations and leave individuals vulnerable to arbitrary detention and abuse in their home countries."