By Premiumkosova After a plane carrying suspected members of a Venezuelan gang landed in El Salvador on Sunday, March 16, Donald Trump was in a good mood.
Despite a federal judge’s decision to overturn the order, the Trump administration issued an order to transfer 238 alleged criminals to a mega-prison in El Salvador.
The administration denied that the plane had disobeyed anyone, but this decision was made after it had entered international territory.
Because the US administration claimed the US was facing an “invasion” by a criminal organization with ties to kidnapping, contract killings, and other organized crimes, Trump was authorized to deport the alleged members of Tren de Aragua thanks to an 18th-century legislation designed for wartime.
One of the biggest prisons in the world, it opened in 2023 and now holds tens of thousands of inmates who have been charged with gang ties.
Bukele posted images and videos of the prisoners being handcuffed and being led off the aircraft to a heavily guarded vehicle on social media.
“The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us,” he said, referring to the arrival of the “first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization.”
Bukele added on Twitter: “As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime. 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.”
Trump came to Truth Social to confirm the move, accusing Joe Biden and the Democrats of being responsible for the accused criminals’ presence in the United States, as officers shaved the heads of the convicts.
He wrote: “These are monsters sent into our Country by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats. How dare they!”
The 78-year-old went on: “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 Democrat leadership.”
“We will not forget.”
Trump denies any wrongdoing amid judge’s ruling
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement in which the Trump administration denied that the deportation of the Venezuelan immigrants was a violation of a court order.
Federal courts, she asserted, ‘have no jurisdiction’ over the international affairs of the president.
The statement added, “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 US soil.”
Rubio has since claimed in another statement that ‘hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country’, adding, “I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador for playing a pivotal role in this transfer.”
Trump has even gone so far as to say that the Tren de Aragua gang is connected to Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela.
According to the president’s order, any Venezuelan national in the United States who is 14 years of age or older and is found to be a member of the gang may be “apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
He said the group has been bringing mass illegal migration’ to the country with the intention of hurting the populace.
In defense of his order, the president stated, “Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA.”
“The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”
‘A concrete and steel pit’
Regarding the jail, CECOT is notorious for its cruel conditions, being a packed establishment where there is constant fighting and detainees are subjected to cruel treatment while forced into their cells.
Inmates are forced to struggle over food and water, and there is very little food available—only pasta and beans.
An ex-member of the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, Miguel Sarre, has called the facility a “concrete and steel pit.”