US deports hundreds of Venezuelans despite court order to Trump administration not to do so

Planes carrying more than 200 Venezuelans deported from the US have landed in El Salvador, hours after a US judge ordered the Donald Trump administration not to do so.

El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, wrote on social media that 238 members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang had arrived, along with 23 members of the international MS-13 gang, on Sunday morning, foreign media wrote, according to Telegraph.

Their arrival in the Central American nation came after a federal judge blocked US President Donald Trump from invoking a centuries-old wartime law to justify the deportations.

The US move to send suspected criminals from other countries to El Salvador was a deal that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously called "the most unprecedented and extraordinary migration deal anywhere in the world."

Bukele wrote that the detainees were immediately transferred to El Salvador's Terrorism Detention Center (Cecot) "for a period of one year," something that was "renewable" - suggesting they could be held there for longer.

"The United States will pay a very low tariff for them, but a high tariff for us," he added.

Rubio confirmed the arrival of the suspected gang members in El Salvador and thanked Bukele, calling him "the strongest security leader in our region."

A few hours earlier, on Saturday evening, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered a halt to deportations covered by Trump's proclamation, which invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The law allows the government to arrest and deport people who threaten the country's security without due process. /Telegraph/