The White House has declared this a clear-cut story of good versus evil. They stated that hundreds of dangerous gang members intending to rape and murder Americans have been captured in one fell swoop, thereby eliminating a societal menace.
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03-24, 2025To publicize this operation, the White House released a well-produced online video, accompanied by tense and exciting action movie music. In the video, shackled prisoners are dragged off airplanes, masked guards shave their heads, and then they are locked in cages. The Trump administration claims these individuals are "heinous monsters" from the Venezuelan gang "Tren de Aragua," known for drug smuggling and sex trafficking in Latin America.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated, "They are rapists, murderers, kidnappers, sexual assaulters, predators, and they have no right to be in this country." Reportedly, these individuals were flown to El Salvador last weekend and detained in the country's mega-prison, where inmates spend over 23 hours a day in crowded, mattress-less cells. El Salvador has stated they will be detained for at least a year, while the U.S. has indicated it will pay El Salvador $6 million (approximately AUD 9.6 million) for this service.
It is currently unclear what fate awaits these individuals after a year, but the President of El Salvador has called the sentences "renewable." Meanwhile, this event has sparked another extraordinary legal dispute between President Donald Trump and the courts. The 238 individuals were transferred rapidly with little warning. Civil rights organizations and immigration lawyers have stated that it appears innocent people have been caught up in the operation. Some families only learned of their relatives' whereabouts after seeing them in social media videos.
Mervin Yamarte's wife told *The Washington Post*: "My heart is broken into a million pieces because my husband is not a member of 'Tren de Aragua,' and I can't believe they sent him there." Yamarte, 29, is a soccer player who worked at a restaurant in Texas. His family says he came to the United States to earn money to support his wife and four-year-old daughter and planned to return home soon. Yamarte's mother said her son called her last Saturday to tell her that he and several friends had been detained, and they had signed deportation orders, agreeing to return to Venezuela. However, their families were shocked to learn they had been imprisoned in a Salvadoran prison known for its harsh conditions. Since the deportation operation, several similar stories have emerged.
It is currently unclear how the U.S. determined that these deportees were criminals. The U.S. government has admitted in court that some of them have clean records in the United States. The White House stated this week that they have "full confidence in the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) intelligence assessments regarding the identities and criminal behavior of these gang members." In court, the government argued that surveillance data and interviews were among the evidence considered, though without specific details. Some individuals, through their lawyers or families, have stated that they were targeted because of tattoos that were misinterpreted as gang-related.
Last Friday, Trump was asked if he was concerned that not all of those deported were gang members or criminals. He responded, "I am told they went through a very strict vetting process, and that vetting will continue in El Salvador. If something like that happened, we would certainly want to find out. But this is a bad group of people, they're in a bad area, and they were with a lot of people that are absolutely murderers, killers, have the worst records you've ever seen. But we'll continue the process. Of course. We don't want to make that kind of mistake."
The legal basis for many of the deportations is an 18th-century law previously only used during wartime. The Alien Enemies Act allows for the detention and deportation of non-citizens from "hostile" nations. Its most controversial application, and the last time it was invoked, was the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. By invoking this law, Trump has effectively declared Venezuela a hostile nation posing some kind of invasion threat, and that the gang is controlled by that country's government. Many legal experts have stated that the law appears to be improperly used. This also means that these individuals were imprisoned without any due process, without a chance to argue their case in court, or even to agree to voluntary repatriation.
While the operation was underway, a federal judge, skeptical of the use of this wartime law, ordered the government to halt the operation. But the government did not comply. The government later argued that the plane was already in the air when the judge's written order was issued. The White House argued that his earlier verbal order did not actually count. White House spokesperson Leavitt stated earlier this week, "There is actually a question as to whether or not a verbal order carries the same weight as a written order."
Federal Judge James Boasberg does not seem to think his verbal order was worth so little. In the week since, he has been arguing with the government, as he investigates whether the government intentionally defied him. He has repeatedly requested information from the government and has expressed disappointment at the "grossly insufficient" and "disrespectful" responses provided so far.
Trump's attack on social media – calling for the impeachment of the "troublemaking" judge – apparently angered the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who made a rare condemnation. But Trump ally Elon Musk has reportedly since donated heavily to Republicans pushing to impeach the judge. His "America First" political fundraising group is offering $100 cash to voters in Wisconsin who sign a petition opposing "radical judges."
It is one thing for Trump to attack the judiciary when he personally faces criminal prosecution before an election. But his continued doing so from the White House is testing the critical separation of powers that checks any president. "The government is not being very cooperative at the moment," Judge Boasberg said last Friday, "but I will find out whether they violated my order, who ordered it, and what the consequences will be."
