US sends more prisoners to El Salvador despite court dispute

WASHINGTON: The United States has sent 17 more prisoners to El Salvador despite an ongoing court dispute, with the Central American nation’s leader releasing another dramatic video of the transfer.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the 17 inmates as “violent criminals” that belonged to two gangs – El Salvador’s MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua – which Washington has declared foreign terrorist organizations.

“These criminals will no longer terrorize our communities and citizens,” Rubio said in a statement in which he thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

Rubio said the prisoners included “murderers and rapists.” Bukele went further and said there were “six child rapists.”

In a Hollywood-style video Bukele posted on social media, a US military aircraft is seen opening up as prisoners are escorted out by masked troops.

US judge questions Trump’s deportation of Venezuelans

The men are brought to their knees with their hands tied in the back and their heads forcibly shaven before they are put behind bars.

Rubio did not state under which authority the United States sent the prisoners.

President Donald Trump, who has vowed to crack down on migration, has invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify deportations without the usual due process spelled out by the US Constitution.

A federal judge on March 15 ordered a halt to deportations under the act, as several planeloads were already in the process of heading to El Salvador.

Bukele – a champion of mass incarceration who has offered to take in inmates from the United States on the cheap – responded sarcastically on social media that the judge’s order came too late.

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s halt, arguing it flagrantly infringes on presidential authority.

The federal judge’s order left the door open for deportations under other authorities.

An initial appeal by the Trump administration was turned down Wednesday with one appeals court judge saying that even “Nazis got better treatment” from the United States during World War II.