Published: 10:17pm, 16 Mar 2025Updated: 10:50pm, 16 Mar 2025
The United States has sent over 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to be imprisoned in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele said on Sunday, after his US counterpart Donald Trump invoked wartime authorities to expel migrants.
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Trump signed an order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on Friday, but it was not publicly announced until Saturday.
The wartime authority allows a president to detain or deport citizens of an enemy nation, but has been invoked only three times before during major international conflicts, including World War I and II.
Civil rights groups sued to block the order, with a federal judge on Saturday granting a temporary suspension of the order, apparently as planes were already headed to El Salvador.
“Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organisation, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country,” Bukele said Sunday morning on X, sharing a video of several men in handcuffs and shackles being transferred from a plane to a heavily guarded convoy.
Bukele, in a meeting last month with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had offered to house prisoners from the United States in his country.