WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Department of Homeland Security has arrested nearly 300 members of the notorious transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua, and deported them to a jail in El Salvador.
Their removal was expedited by the Trump administration after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation invoking wartime powers regarding the invasion of the United States by Tren De Aragua, which has been designated by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
By the time US District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order against invoking the Alien Enemies Act, planes carrying hundreds of mostly Venezuelan criminals had reportedly taken off.
'Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,' said Judge Boasberg during the hearing.
The White House describes Tren de Aragua, or TDA, as 'one of the most violent and ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth'. 'They rape, maim and murder for sport. TDA is responsible for some of the most heinous crimes that have occurred on US soil in recent years, including the murders of Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray'.
The White House said nearly 300 Tren de Aragua gang members were arrested and removed to El Salvador, while CBS News quoted a senior Trump administration official as saying that 261 people were deported on Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele for offering to accept the deportees, who have been transferred to the Center for Terrorism Confinement, or CECOT.
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