More gang members deported to El Salvador, Rubio says

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said the U.S. military deported 17 more violent criminals to El Salvador. The deportees belonged to the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs, Rubio said. Some were murderers and rapists, according to Rubio. The group included Salvadorans and Venezuelans, the Salvadoran government told the BBC.

Rubio thanked President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador for his partnership. U.S. President Donald Trump in a Monday social media post also thanked Bukele for giving the criminals what he characterized as a wonderful place to live. Trump is paying El Salvador at least $6 million to imprison several hundred gang members for a year.

The news came just before the Department of Justice announced Tuesday that U.S. attorneys in border states had charged more than 960 illegal immigrants with immigration-related crimes.

What’s the controversy about these deportations? President Trump designated cartels such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations in one of his first presidential actions. He invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport gang members. Several Venezuelans under imminent risk of deportation sued to block Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act.

James Boasberg, top judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., on March 15 issued a temporary order granting the Venezuelans’ request. He ordered flights of deportees on their way out of the country to turn around, an order the Trump administration said it could not fulfill, as the aircraft were already in the air. Boasberg on March 24 refused to lift the restraining order, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. that same day refused to overturn it. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift the restraining order.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on the arrest of an alleged MS-13 leader.