ReutersThe Trump administration has deported 17 extra alleged gang members to El Salvador, the US state division has stated, regardless of authorized battles over eradicating folks to the Central American nation’s supermax jail.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the group included members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs.
Salvadoran authorities officers advised the BBC they included a mixture of Venezuelans and Salvadorans.
Earlier this month a court docket ordered a halt to deportations carried out underneath the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 regulation beforehand used solely in wartime. Nevertheless, US media, citing administration sources, reported that the latest deportations have been made underneath basic immigration legal guidelines.
In a press release, Rubio stated the group included “murderers and rapists”, however didn’t present names or particulars of the alleged crimes or of any convictions.
In a submit on X, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shared a dramatically edited video exhibiting shackled males being loaded off a aircraft and their heads being shaved earlier than they have been put into jail cells.
“All people are confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, together with six youngster rapists,” he wrote. “This operation is one other step within the combat in opposition to terrorism and arranged crime.”
President Trump reposted the message, blamed the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden for permitting the deportees into the US and thanked Bukele for “giving them such a beautiful place to reside”.
El Salvador has agreed to soak up deportees in change for $6m (£4.6m).
Members of the family of a few of those that have been beforehand despatched to the utmost safety jail have denied they’ve any gang ties.
After Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to take away greater than 100 Venezuelans from the US earlier this month, teams together with the American Civil Liberties Union filed a authorized problem alleging the administration had illegally denied the immigrants due course of.
In a listening to on 15 March, James Boasberg, the highest federal choose in Washington DC, imposed a brief restraining order on the usage of the regulation and ordered deportation flights that have been within the air to be rotated.
However the deportations proceeded. The subsequent listening to within the case shall be held on Thursday.
With reporting by Will Grant
