Over 200 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have been deported from the United States to a high-security prison in El Salvador, despite a federal judge blocking the removals.

On Sunday morning, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced via social media that 238 members of Tren de Aragua, along with 23 members of the international MS-13 gang, had arrived in the country.

Neither the US government nor El Salvador has disclosed the identities of the detainees or provided details regarding their alleged criminal activities or gang affiliations.

Despite a federal judge’s order preventing the Trump administration from using a centuries-old wartime law to justify the deportations, the flights had already taken off.

Oopsie… Too late,” President Nayib Bukele cheekily posted on social media, mocking the judge’s decision.

A video shared in one of his posts showed rows of shackled detainees being escorted by armed officials off the planes. Bukele, a strong ally of Trump, revealed that the deportees were immediately sent to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot). He stated that they would be held there for “one year,” with the possibility of extension.

“The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us,” Bukele added in his post.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised Bukele, calling him “the strongest security leader in our region” in a post on X.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also responded on social media, stating, “These heinous monsters were extracted and removed to El Salvador where they will no longer be able to pose any threat to the American people.”

On Saturday, Trump announced he had signed a proclamation declaring that the Tren de Aragua gang was “conducting irregular warfare” against the United States, and he would be deporting its members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

That evening, US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington DC issued a temporary 14-day halt on deportations related to Trump’s proclamation, allowing time for further legal discussions. After lawyers informed him that planes carrying deportees had already left, Judge Boasberg verbally instructed the flights to return, though this directive wasn’t part of his formal written ruling, according to US media reports.

The written notice appeared in the case docket at 7:25 PM EDT on Saturday (12:25 AM GMT on Sunday), according to Reuters, though it remains unclear when the flights carrying the alleged gang members actually left the United States.

A senior official in the Trump administration stated that legal advisors had concluded the judge’s order was not valid, as the two planes were already flying over international waters when the ruling came through, reports Axios.

“They were already outside US airspace,” the official told Axios. “We believe the order doesn’t apply.”

The Department of Justice has filed an appeal against the judge’s decision, as reported by CBS News, a media partner of the BBC. The BBC has reached out to the Justice Department for further comment.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), involved in the lawsuit against the Trump administration, has argued that the court’s order might have been violated.

The case raises constitutional issues, as under the US system of checks and balances, government agencies are typically required to abide by federal court orders.

Venezuela condemned Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, stating it “unjustly criminalizes Venezuelan migration” and “recalls the darkest periods in history, from slavery to the atrocities of Nazi concentration camps.”

Amnesty International USA criticized the deportations on social media, describing them as “yet another example of the Trump administration’s racist targeting” of Venezuelans, based on broad allegations of gang ties.

El Salvador’s Cecot prison is part of President Bukele’s ongoing crackdown on organized crime. The newly constructed maximum-security facility, capable of housing up to 40,000 inmates, has faced criticism from human rights groups for alleged mistreatment of prisoners.