Latest news with #Tren
New York Times
23-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
U.S. Says Tren de Aragua Charges Will ‘Devastate' Its Infrastructure
New York City's mayor and police commissioner and a top White House immigration official announced on Tuesday two indictments charging 27 people they said were linked to Tren de Aragua, a gang that the Trump administration has said poses a unique threat to America. 'Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang — it is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a news release touting the charges, adding that the arrests 'will devastate TdA's infrastructure' in three states. Six defendants were named as members or associates of Tren, which the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The other 21 people, prosecutors said, had broken away to join a violent splinter group called anti-Tren. Still, officials argued, in displaying dozens of seized handguns and rifles, the existence of both groups showed Tren de Aragua's singular harm. Members of the gangs had engaged in murders and assaults, sex trafficking and human smuggling, according to the indictments. At a news conference, Thomas D. Homan, whom President Trump appointed as 'border czar,' said the indictments showed the necessity of his immigration policies. 'New York City — you're a sanctuary city, you're sanctuary for criminals,' said Mr. Homan, the so-called border czar. As he spoke, Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Eric Adams looked on and did not respond. The indictments, first announced by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan on Monday, and the news conference on Tuesday, arrived as the Trump administration has been deporting people it says are members of Tren de Aragua, without affording them hearings or other forms of due process. The Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in February. Last month, Mr. Trump said in an executive order that the group operated in conjunction with the regime of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, a conclusion disputed by American intelligence agencies. In the order, Mr. Trump said the gang had committed brutal crimes like murder and kidnapping and was 'threatening an invasion' into the United States. On Tuesday, questioning at the news conference grew heated as reporters asked Mr. Homan about the administration's aggressive drive to deport the undocumented. Mr. Homan said that the American people elected Donald Trump to enforce immigration laws 'and that's exactly what we're doing.' He added, 'If you're in the country illegally, you're not off the table.' The deportations of Venezuelans, many to a Salvadoran prison notorious for harsh treatment, have been cast by the U.S. government as immigration enforcement. The indictments accuse the defendants of criminal wrongdoing. The indictments include counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, robbery and firearms crimes, but offer few details about the offenses, a vagueness that is not unusual when prosecutors first announce charges. Government court filings indicate that investigators relied on interviews with 'current and former self-identified TdA members' and witnesses who identified people as gang members. Commissioner Tisch said at the news conference that the gang members had come to New York City 'to build something, but they never got the chance.' Commissioner Tisch said Tren de Aragua began making its way into the city about two years ago, starting with coordinated robberies, using scooters as getaway vehicles, and quickly graduating to more serious crimes. Members attacked people on the street for their wallets, pursues, watches — 'anything that they could get their hands on,' the commissioner said. 'These robberies were connected, networked, and they were citywide,' she added. Investigators began paying closer attention to the gang after January 2024, when a group of migrants from Venezuela were charged with assaulting police officers in Times Square, the commissioner said. The assailants were Tren members, Commissioner Tisch said. Then, last June, two officers were shot in Queens when they tried to arrest a suspect in one of the robberies. Commissioner Tisch said the newly unsealed indictments describe a violent network responsible for multiple shootings, home invasions, carjackings and sex trafficking. 'They targeted vulnerable women from Venezuela, forcing them into sex work and threatening to kill their families if they didn't comply,' she said. A federal inquiry began in October, during the Biden administration, according to court filings signed by Michael Bonner, a special agent with Homeland Security investigations. Agent Bonner described Tren as having established a foothold in the United States, including in New York. In particular, he wrote, the members had a considerable presence in the Bronx and near 79th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. As a result of substantial conflicts within the gang, some Tren members 'have disavowed the organization and described themselves as 'anti-Tren,'' the agent said. Hostilities between Tren and anti-Tren members drove much of the violence, including over women and girls who were being sex trafficked by the gang, he noted. A gang member's self-identification as Tren or anti-Tren 'can be fluid,' Agent Bonner added, and the same gang member may switch between the two affiliations depending on circumstances. Of the 27 defendants, 21 were in custody and the other six are fugitives, Mr. Homan said at the news conference. The Trump administration has used the threat of the gang as justification for its plans to create the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, and Tuesday's news conference became a broad defense of that goal. Commissioner Tisch has consistently said that the Police Department will not enforce immigration laws, even as members of the Trump administration have pressured Mayor Adams to help the president enact its agenda. The Justice Department dropped corruption charges against the mayor specifically to enable his cooperation. During the news conference, Mayor Adams appeared to reference a false accusation that Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator from Maryland, had drunk margaritas with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Venezuelan immigrant who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. 'I won't have a tequila drink with a gang member,' Mayor Adams said during the news conference. 'I won't be hanging out with them and hugging them, acting like they are victims.' Mayor Adams said that Mr. Homan had 'never asked the N.Y.P.D. to enforce civil immigration.' But he nodded to the Trump administration's talking points, saying that crime had fallen in the city since 'we have secured our border.'
Los Angeles Times
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
A closer look at Trump's move to send Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador
Last month, President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law giving him immense powers to deport noncitizens in a time of war. His use of that law was aimed at Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that he has repeatedly and falsely claimed to be part of an 'invasion' of criminal immigrants in the United States. Within 24 hours of Trump's March 14 decree, more than 130 Venezuelans were deported to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT — a prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, notorious for its conditions — even as a U.S. judge ordered the planes carrying them to turn around. Here's what you need to know about the situation: Trump had long promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to combat illegal immigration. The law crafted during the presidency of John Adams had been used just three times: during the War of 1812 and the two world wars. The Trump administration had begun moving closer to calling the migrant issue a war, most notably by designating eight Latin American criminal groups, including Tren de Aragua, as 'foreign terrorist organizations.' U.S. immigration authorities use a series of 'gang identifiers' to spot members of Tren de Aragua. Some are obvious, such as evidence of trafficking drugs with known gang members. Some are more surprising: Chicago Bulls jerseys, 'high-end urban street wear,' and tattoos of clocks, stars and crowns, according to government instructional material filed in court by the American Civil Liberties Union. Ordinary tattoos were key to marking many deported men as Tren members, according to documents and lawyers. One of those men was a makeup artist who said he fled Venezuela after his boss at a state-run news channel publicly slapped him. In a country where political repression and open homophobia are part of life, it's hard to be a gay man who does not support Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Hoping to find a new life in America, Andry José Hernández Romero made his way north and arranged an appointment at a U.S. border crossing in San Diego. There, he was asked about his tattoos. Romero has a crown tattooed on each wrist. One is next to the word 'Mom.' The other is next to 'Dad.' The crowns, his lawyer says, also pay homage to his hometown's Christmastime 'Three Kings' festival, and to his work in beauty pageants. Romero, who insists he has no ties to Tren, was transferred to a California detention center. Then, around March 7, he was moved to a facility in Laredo, Texas, a three-hour bus ride from the south Texas city of Harlingen. Two days before the March 14 deportations, jets chartered by a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began landing in Harlingen from across the U.S., some carrying detained Venezuelans. Court documents later showed that for at least the previous week, Venezuelan men in many immigration detention centers were being moved by bus and plane toward ICE's El Valle detention facility, close to the Harlingen airport. Then, a flight analyst for the advocacy group Witness at the Border noticed two Saturday flights scheduled from Harlingen to El Salvador. That was unusual. Deportations are fairly rare on Saturdays, as are deportation flights from Harlingen to El Salvador, said the analyst, Tom Cartwright, whose social media feeds are closely watched in immigration circles. On March 14, with the Alien Enemies Act hours from being invoked and more than a day from being announced, word was filtering out from a group of Venezuelan men held at El Valle. Around 3 a.m., roughly 100 had been awakened by guards and told they were being deported. Ten hours later, the men were back in their bunks. The flight had been canceled, they were told, and they would leave soon. Within hours, an informal legal network was frantically trying to stop those deportations and working with Texas lawyers who would file federal court petitions. Meanwhile, later that Friday, with signs growing that deportations could be imminent, two legal advocacy groups, the ACLU and Democracy Forward, decided they had to file preemptively. They spent hours drafting a petition on behalf of five detained Venezuelans who feared being falsely labeled members of Tren and deported. Finally, early Saturday morning they filed the petition with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking to halt all deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. Later that day, Judge James E. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order in response to the ACLU lawsuit and scheduled a 5 p.m. hearing. In Texas, though, things began to move faster. Guards gathered prisoners at the El Valle detention center, ordering them onto buses for the airport. The flights carried a total of 261 deportees, the White House later said, including 137 Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act, 101 under other immigration regulations, and 23 Salvadoran members of the gang MS-13. About 4 p.m., the White House posted Trump's proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act. About an hour later, Boasberg opened his hearing over Zoom. He asked whether the government planned to deport anyone under the proclamation 'in the next 24 or 48 hours.' The ACLU warned that deportation planes were about to take off. Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Drew Ensign said he was unsure of the flight details. Eventually Boasberg issued a new order to stop deportations being conducted under the Alien Enemies Act. He said any planes in the air needed to come back. 'This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately,' he told Ensign. By then, two ICE planes were heading across the Gulf of Mexico and toward Central America. Neither turned around. The next morning, El Salvador's president tweeted a New York Post headline saying Boasberg had ordered the planes turned around. 'Oopsie … Too late,' Nayib Bukele wrote, adding a laughing/crying emoji. The Trump administration is now urging the Supreme Court for permission to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg soon could rule on whether there are grounds to find anyone in contempt of court for defying his court order. As for Romero, the makeup artist, he's somewhere in CECOT. Sullivan writes for the Associated Press.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Takeaways from Trump's move to send Venezuelan migrants in the US to a prison in El Salvador
On Friday, March 14, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law giving him immense powers to deport noncitizens in a time of war. His use of that law was aimed at Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that he has repeatedly and falsely claimed as part of an invasion of criminal immigrants. Over the next 24 hours, more than 130 Venezuelans were deported to an El Salvadoran prison even as a U.S. judge ordered the planes carrying them to turn around. Here's what you need to know about the situation: An 18th-century law Trump had long promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to combat illegal immigration. The law crafted during the presidency of John Adams had been used just three times: during the War of 1812 and the two world wars. The Trump administration had begun moving closer to calling the migrant issue a war, most notably by designating eight Latin American criminal groups, including Tren de Aragua, as 'foreign terrorist organizations.' Tattoos as gang markers U.S. immigration authorities use a series of 'gang identifiers' to spot members of Tren de Aragua. Some are obvious, such as trafficking drugs with known gang members. Some are more surprising: Chicago Bulls jerseys, 'high-end urban street wear,' and tattoos of clocks, stars and crowns, according to government instructional material filed in court by the American Civil Liberties Union. Ordinary tattoos were key to marking many deported men as Tren members, according to documents and lawyers. One of those men was a makeup artist who said he fled Venezuela after his boss at a state-run news channel publicly slapped him. In a country where political repression and open homophobia are both part of life, it's hard to be a gay man who does not support President Nicolás Maduro. Hoping to find a new life in America, Andry José Hernández Romero made his way north and arranged an appointment at a U.S. border crossing in San Diego. There, he was asked about his tattoos. Romero has a crown tattooed on each wrist. One is next to the word 'Mom.' The other next to 'Dad.' The crowns, his lawyer says, also pay homage to his hometown's Christmastime 'Three Kings' festival, and to his work in beauty pageants. Romero, who insists he has no ties to Tren, was transferred to a California detention center. Then, around March 7, he was moved to a facility in Laredo, Texas, a three-hour bus ride from the South Texas city of Harlingen. Gathering detained Venezuelans for deportation Two days before the March 14 deportations, jets chartered by a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began landing in Harlingen from across the U.S., some carrying detained Venezuelans. Court documents later showed that for at least the previous week, Venezuelan men in many immigration detention centers were being moved by bus and plane toward ICE's El Valle Detention Facility, close to the Harlingen airport. Then, a flight analyst for the advocacy group Witness at the Border noticed two Saturday flights scheduled from Harlingen to El Salvador. That was unusual. Deportations are fairly rare on Saturdays, as are deportation flights from Harlingen to El Salvador, said the analyst, Tom Cartwright, whose social media feeds are closely watched in immigration circles. Immigration lawyers push back On March 14, with the Alien Enemies Act hours from being invoked and more than a day from being announced, word was filtering out from a group of Venezuelan men held at El Valle. Around 3 a.m., roughly 100 had been awakened by guards and told they were being deported. Ten hours later, the men were back in their bunks. The flight had been canceled, they were told, and they would leave soon. Within hours, an informal legal network was frantically trying to stop those deportations and working with Texas lawyers who would file federal court petitions. Meanwhile, later that Friday, with signs growing that deportations could be imminent, two legal advocacy groups, the ACLU and Democracy Forward, felt they had to file preemptively. They spent hours drafting a petition on behalf of five detained Venezuelans who feared being falsely labeled members of Tren and deported. Finally, early Saturday morning they filed the petition with the U.S. District Court in Washington, seeking to halt all deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. The judge weighs in Later that day, Judge James E. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order in response to the ACLU lawsuit and scheduled a 5 p.m. hearing. In Texas, though, things began to move faster. Guards gathered prisoners at the El Valle detention center, ordering them onto buses for the airport. The flights carried a total of 261 deportees, the White House later said, including 137 Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act, 101 under other immigration regulations, and 23 El Salvadoran members of the gang MS-13. About 4 p.m. the White House posted Trump's proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act. Roughly an hour later Boasberg opened his hearing over Zoom. He asked whether the government planned to deport anyone under the proclamation 'in the next 24 or 48 hours.' The ACLU warned that deportation planes were about to take off. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign said he was unsure of the flight details. Eventually Boasberg issued a new order to stop deportations being conducted under the Alien Enemies Act. He said any planes in the air needed to come back. 'This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately,' he told Ensign. By then, two ICE Air planes were heading across the Gulf of Mexico and toward Central America. Neither turned around. 'Oopsie' The next morning, El Salvador's president tweeted a New York Post headline saying Boasberg had ordered the planes turned around. 'Oopsie … Too late,' Nayib Bukele wrote, adding a laughing/crying emoji. The Trump administration is now urging the Supreme Court for permission to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg soon could rule on whether there are grounds to find anyone in contempt of court for defying his court order. As for Romero, the makeup artist, he's somewhere in CECOT.
The Independent
05-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Takeaways from Trump's move to send Venezuelan migrants in the US to a prison in El Salvador
On Friday, March 14, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law giving him immense powers to deport noncitizens in a time of war. His use of that law was aimed at Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that he has repeatedly and falsely claimed as part of an invasion of criminal immigrants. Over the next 24 hours, more than 130 Venezuelans were deported to an El Salvadoran prison even as a U.S. judge ordered the planes carrying them to turn around. Here's what you need to know about the situation: An 18th-century law Trump had long promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to combat illegal immigration. The law crafted during the presidency of John Adams had been used just three times: during the War of 1812 and the two world wars. The Trump administration had begun moving closer to calling the migrant issue a war, most notably by designating eight Latin American criminal groups, including Tren de Aragua, as 'foreign terrorist organizations.' Tattoos as gang markers U.S. immigration authorities use a series of 'gang identifiers' to spot members of Tren de Aragua. Some are obvious, such as trafficking drugs with known gang members. Some are more surprising: Chicago Bulls jerseys, 'high-end urban street wear,' and tattoos of clocks, stars and crowns, according to government instructional material filed in court by the American Civil Liberties Union. Ordinary tattoos were key to marking many deported men as Tren members, according to documents and lawyers. One of those men was a makeup artist who said he fled Venezuela after his boss at a state-run news channel publicly slapped him. In a country where political repression and open homophobia are both part of life, it's hard to be a gay man who does not support President Nicolás Maduro. Hoping to find a new life in America, Andry José Hernández Romero made his way north and arranged an appointment at a U.S. border crossing in San Diego. There, he was asked about his tattoos. Romero has a crown tattooed on each wrist. One is next to the word 'Mom.' The other next to 'Dad.' The crowns, his lawyer says, also pay homage to his hometown's Christmastime 'Three Kings' festival, and to his work in beauty pageants. Romero, who insists he has no ties to Tren, was transferred to a California detention center. Then, around March 7, he was moved to a facility in Laredo, Texas, a three-hour bus ride from the South Texas city of Harlingen. Gathering detained Venezuelans for deportation Two days before the March 14 deportations, jets chartered by a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began landing in Harlingen from across the U.S., some carrying detained Venezuelans. Court documents later showed that for at least the previous week, Venezuelan men in many immigration detention centers were being moved by bus and plane toward ICE's El Valle Detention Facility, close to the Harlingen airport. Then, a flight analyst for the advocacy group Witness at the Border noticed two Saturday flights scheduled from Harlingen to El Salvador. That was unusual. Deportations are fairly rare on Saturdays, as are deportation flights from Harlingen to El Salvador, said the analyst, Tom Cartwright, whose social media feeds are closely watched in immigration circles. Immigration lawyers push back On March 14, with the Alien Enemies Act hours from being invoked and more than a day from being announced, word was filtering out from a group of Venezuelan men held at El Valle. Around 3 a.m., roughly 100 had been awakened by guards and told they were being deported. Ten hours later, the men were back in their bunks. The flight had been canceled, they were told, and they would leave soon. Within hours, an informal legal network was frantically trying to stop those deportations and working with Texas lawyers who would file federal court petitions. Meanwhile, later that Friday, with signs growing that deportations could be imminent, two legal advocacy groups, the ACLU and Democracy Forward, felt they had to file preemptively. They spent hours drafting a petition on behalf of five detained Venezuelans who feared being falsely labeled members of Tren and deported. Finally, early Saturday morning they filed the petition with the U.S. District Court in Washington, seeking to halt all deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. The judge weighs in Later that day, Judge James E. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order in response to the ACLU lawsuit and scheduled a 5 p.m. hearing. In Texas, though, things began to move faster. Guards gathered prisoners at the El Valle detention center, ordering them onto buses for the airport. The flights carried a total of 261 deportees, the White House later said, including 137 Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act, 101 under other immigration regulations, and 23 El Salvadoran members of the gang MS-13. About 4 p.m. the White House posted Trump's proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act. Roughly an hour later Boasberg opened his hearing over Zoom. He asked whether the government planned to deport anyone under the proclamation 'in the next 24 or 48 hours.' The ACLU warned that deportation planes were about to take off. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign said he was unsure of the flight details. Eventually Boasberg issued a new order to stop deportations being conducted under the Alien Enemies Act. He said any planes in the air needed to come back. 'This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately,' he told Ensign. By then, two ICE Air planes were heading across the Gulf of Mexico and toward Central America. Neither turned around. 'Oopsie' The next morning, El Salvador's president tweeted a New York Post headline saying Boasberg had ordered the planes turned around. 'Oopsie … Too late,' Nayib Bukele wrote, adding a laughing/crying emoji. The Trump administration is now urging the Supreme Court for permission to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg soon could rule on whether there are grounds to find anyone in contempt of court for defying his court order. As for Romero, the makeup artist, he's somewhere in CECOT.
Associated Press
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Takeaways from Trump's move to send Venezuelan migrants in the US to a prison in El Salvador
On Friday, March 14, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law giving him immense powers to deport noncitizens in a time of war. His use of that law was aimed at Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that he has repeatedly and falsely claimed as part of an invasion of criminal immigrants. Over the next 24 hours, more than 130 Venezuelans were deported to an El Salvadoran prison even as a U.S. judge ordered the planes carrying them to turn around. Here's what you need to know about the situation: An 18th-century law Trump had long promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to combat illegal immigration. The law crafted during the presidency of John Adams had been used just three times: during the War of 1812 and the two world wars. The Trump administration had begun moving closer to calling the migrant issue a war, most notably by designating eight Latin American criminal groups, including Tren de Aragua, as 'foreign terrorist organizations.' Tattoos as gang markers U.S. immigration authorities use a series of 'gang identifiers' to spot members of Tren de Aragua. Some are obvious, such as trafficking drugs with known gang members. Some are more surprising: Chicago Bulls jerseys, 'high-end urban street wear,' and tattoos of clocks, stars and crowns, according to government instructional material filed in court by the American Civil Liberties Union. Ordinary tattoos were key to marking many deported men as Tren members, according to documents and lawyers. One of those men was a makeup artist who said he fled Venezuela after his boss at a state-run news channel publicly slapped him. In a country where political repression and open homophobia are both part of life, it's hard to be a gay man who does not support President Nicolás Maduro. Hoping to find a new life in America, Andry José Hernández Romero made his way north and arranged an appointment at a U.S. border crossing in San Diego. There, he was asked about his tattoos. Romero has a crown tattooed on each wrist. One is next to the word 'Mom.' The other next to 'Dad.' The crowns, his lawyer says, also pay homage to his hometown's Christmastime 'Three Kings' festival, and to his work in beauty pageants. Romero, who insists he has no ties to Tren, was transferred to a California detention center. Then, around March 7, he was moved to a facility in Laredo, Texas, a three-hour bus ride from the South Texas city of Harlingen. Gathering detained Venezuelans for deportation Two days before the March 14 deportations, jets chartered by a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began landing in Harlingen from across the U.S., some carrying detained Venezuelans. Court documents later showed that for at least the previous week, Venezuelan men in many immigration detention centers were being moved by bus and plane toward ICE's El Valle Detention Facility, close to the Harlingen airport. Then, a flight analyst for the advocacy group Witness at the Border noticed two Saturday flights scheduled from Harlingen to El Salvador. That was unusual. Deportations are fairly rare on Saturdays, as are deportation flights from Harlingen to El Salvador, said the analyst, Tom Cartwright, whose social media feeds are closely watched in immigration circles. Immigration lawyers push back On March 14, with the Alien Enemies Act hours from being invoked and more than a day from being announced, word was filtering out from a group of Venezuelan men held at El Valle. Around 3 a.m., roughly 100 had been awakened by guards and told they were being deported. Ten hours later, the men were back in their bunks. The flight had been canceled, they were told, and they would leave soon. Within hours, an informal legal network was frantically trying to stop those deportations and working with Texas lawyers who would file federal court petitions. Meanwhile, later that Friday, with signs growing that deportations could be imminent, two legal advocacy groups, the ACLU and Democracy Forward, felt they had to file preemptively. They spent hours drafting a petition on behalf of five detained Venezuelans who feared being falsely labeled members of Tren and deported. Finally, early Saturday morning they filed the petition with the U.S. District Court in Washington, seeking to halt all deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. The judge weighs in Later that day, Judge James E. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order in response to the ACLU lawsuit and scheduled a 5 p.m. hearing. In Texas, though, things began to move faster. Guards gathered prisoners at the El Valle detention center, ordering them onto buses for the airport. The flights carried a total of 261 deportees, the White House later said, including 137 Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act, 101 under other immigration regulations, and 23 El Salvadoran members of the gang MS-13. About 4 p.m. the White House posted Trump's proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act. Roughly an hour later Boasberg opened his hearing over Zoom. He asked whether the government planned to deport anyone under the proclamation 'in the next 24 or 48 hours.' The ACLU warned that deportation planes were about to take off. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign said he was unsure of the flight details. Eventually Boasberg issued a new order to stop deportations being conducted under the Alien Enemies Act. He said any planes in the air needed to come back. 'This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately,' he told Ensign. By then, two ICE Air planes were heading across the Gulf of Mexico and toward Central America. Neither turned around. 'Oopsie' The next morning, El Salvador's president tweeted a New York Post headline saying Boasberg had ordered the planes turned around. 'Oopsie … Too late,' Nayib Bukele wrote, adding a laughing/crying emoji. The Trump administration is now urging the Supreme Court for permission to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg soon could rule on whether there are grounds to find anyone in contempt of court for defying his court order. As for Romero, the makeup artist, he's somewhere in CECOT.
