Trump Thanks El Salvador For Taking Alleged Gang Members Deported From US
Former President Donald Trump expressed his gratitude to El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, after a striking video surfaced showing hundreds of suspected migrant criminals arriving in Central America following their deportation from the United States.
Trump took to social media to thank Bukele and referenced the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which grants the authority to deport citizens and natives of enemy nations without requiring a hearing.
“Thank you to El Salvador and, in particular, President Bukele, for your understanding of this horrible situation, which was allowed to happen to the United States because of incompetent Democrat leadership. We will not forget,” Trump wrote.
He also referred to the apprehended migrants as “the monsters sent into our Country by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats.”
According to a senior official from the Trump administration who spoke with Fox News, a significant 261 illegal immigrants were sent back to El Salvador. Among them, 137 were deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, while 101 Venezuelans were removed under Title 8. Additionally, 21 Salvadoran MS-13 gang members and two high-profile MS-13 leaders classified as “special cases” for El Salvador were also deported.
The deportees had a history of serious crimes, including kidnapping, child sexual abuse, aggravated assault, prostitution, robbery, and assaulting a police officer.
A Trump administration official revealed to Fox News that when a federal judge attempted to halt the deportations, the planes had already left U.S. airspace.
To assess whether Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act was legal, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued an immediate order to stop the deportations of suspected gang members.
“We did not defy a court order. The order came too late, and illegals were already in international airspace,” the official stated, as initially reported by Axios.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed this stance, telling Fox News that the judge’s ruling “had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.”
“The written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict,” Leavitt stated. “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”
In a post on X, Bukele confirmed the migrants’ arrival in El Salvador, stating that they were placed in a “terrorism confinement center,” where they will remain for at least a year.
Dramatic footage displayed heavily armed Salvadoran police officers surrounding the suspected gang members, forcing them to lower their heads while escorting them into a facility.
The video also captured the suspects being led into their prison cells with their hands positioned behind their necks, as well as undergoing head shaving.
“Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable,” Bukele wrote. “As of today, it costs $200 million per year.”
He further noted that the capture of MS-13 members “will help us finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors.”
“As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime,” he added. “But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place. All in a single action. May God bless El Salvador, and may God bless the United States,” Bukele wrote.
Bukele’s post received an appreciative response from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who commended the Salvadoran leader for his “assistance and friendship.”
“President @nayibbukele is not only the strongest security leader in our region, he’s also a great friend of the U.S.,” Rubio wrote in an X post. “Thank you!”