President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his use of an 18th century wartime law to deport hundreds of alleged gang members by insisting “this is a time of war” and offering up his oft-repeated, baseless claim that foreign countries have emptied their prisons into the United States.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—which had previously only been used during the War of 1812 and the two World Wars—in order to expedite the deportation of 137 migrants to El Salvador on Saturday.
His administration proceeded with the deportations even as a federal judge ordered a temporary pause and asked that any flights in the air be turned around.
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Citing sources familiar with the matter, ABC News reported Sunday that the administration knowingly ignored the order, which the White House denied.
Asked by a reporter on board Air Force One about criticism of his decision to invoke the seldom used wartime powers, Trump attacked his predecessor Joe Biden and repeated one of his favorite baseless and misleading claims.
“This is a time of war because Biden allowed millions of people, many of them criminals, many of them at the highest level, they emptied jails out, other nations emptied their jails into the United States,” he said. “That’s an invasion.”
Dating back to his presidential campaign last year, Trump has frequently made unfounded allegations that foreign countries have sent prisoners and people from mental institutions to the United States.
On Sunday, he used these spurious claims to insist America is at war.
“These are criminals, many, many criminals, murderers, drug dealers at the highest level, drug lords, people from mental institutions,” he said. “That’s an invasion. They invaded our country. In that sense, this is war. In many respects, it’s more dangerous than war because, you know, in war, they have uniforms. You know who you’re shooting at, you know who you’re going after.”
Roberto Briceño-León, the director of the crime watchdog Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, told CNN last year that Trump’s claims aren’t grounded in reality: “We have no evidence that the Venezuelan government is emptying its prisons or mental health institutions to send them outside the country, in other words, to the U.S. or any other country.”
After he defended his use of wartime powers, Trump’s answer immediately devolved into a rambling spiel in which he compared Biden to an autopen machine and wondered aloud if the former president had used one of the devices created to allow the automatic signing of a signature.
He eventually suggested his administration might use one of the machines to “send some young person a letter.”
In invoking wartime powers, Trump said in a proclamation Saturday that he was targeting members of the transnational Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which he said has many members who “have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”
The men who were deported under the Alien Enemies Act were part of a larger group of more than 200 who were handed over to Salvadorian authorities led by the Trump-allied President Nayib Bukele, who has agreed to detain up to 300 migrants in his country’s prisons.
Bukele, upon receiving the transfer of the men in his country, mocked the U.S. court ruling by writing in a social media post: “Oopsie… Too late.” His post was shared by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung.
According to his Saturday ruling, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s temporary restraining order, which would halt further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, will remain in effect for 14 days “or until further order of the court.”
