On March 15, President Trump signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The proclamation claimed that the Alien Enemies Act gave Trump the authority to summarily deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a gang based in Venezuela, without due process.

At 5:26 and 5:42 PM Eastern, shortly after the proclamation was posted to the White House website, two planes loaded with purported TdA members took off from an airport in Harlingen, Texas bound for San Salvador, El Salvador. A third plane of accused TdA members took off from the same airport at 7:36 PM Eastern. In all, about 200 people were on the planes.

There are a few big problems with these flights.

First, the Alien Enemies Act does not authorize the president to deport alleged gang members without due process. The law is "a wartime authority that allows the president to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation." It can be invoked only in the context of a "declared war" or "invasion" by "any foreign nation or government." The United States is not at war with Venezuela and the 200 people, whether or not they are gang members, did not "invade" the United States on behalf of Venezuela.

Second, before any of the flights landed — and before one flight even took off — a federal judge ordered the flights not to proceed. "You shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States," a federal judge told lawyers representing the Trump administration at 6:48 PM. The ACLU and Democracy Forward had sued the administration on behalf of the accused migrants. The Trump administration ignored the judge's order, did not turn the planes in the air around, and directed a third flight to take off.

Once in San Salvador, the detainees were transported to Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), a notorious mega-prison that can house over 40,000 people. The inmates are confined to cells for 23.5 hours a day, sleep on metal bunks with no sheets, pillows, or mattresses, and relieve themselves in an open toilet. Upon arrival from the United States, the detainees were "forced to kneel while prison guards shaved their hair and shouted commands."

Beyond the legalities, there is another fundamental problem with the deportation operation: many of the alleged gang members sent to CECOT do not appear to be gang members at all. The Trump administration appears to be linking some of the migrants to TdA through tattoos. But, according to experts, TdA affiliates do not “have any particular signs that identify their membership."

Gustavo Adolfo Aguilera Agüero

Gustavo Adolfo Aguilera Agüero’s family suspects that he is among the detainees sent to El Salvador, the Miami Herald reported. According to his family, Aguilera Agüero, a 27-year-old Venezuelan who has lived with his family in Dallas since December 2023, worked “installing water pipes on rooftops.” In February, Aguilera Agüero was detained by authorities “while he was taking trash out of his home,” his wife said. According to his wife, “[a]uthorities had been looking for someone else.”

Aguilera Agüero told his mother on Friday that he was being deported to Venezuela, but, as of Sunday, no plane had arrived in Venezuela and his family has not heard from him since. According to his family, Aguilera Agüero has no connection to TdA and does not have a criminal record. His mother said he was arrested because of his tattoos, which include a crown with his son’s name and a star with his name and his mother’s name.

Anyelo Sarabia González

Solanyer Sarabia thinks that her brother is among the detainees in El Salvador, according to Reuters. On Friday, her brother, Anyelo, said that he was going to be deported to Venezuela, after he was detained in January following an appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Sarabia crossed the border with Anyelo and their sister in November 2023 and they were released to seek asylum. According to Sarabia, the reason for her brother’s detainment was a tattoo that authorities argued affiliated him with TdA. Sarabia argued that he got the tattoo, which is of a rose, in Dallas because he “thought it looked cool, looked nice,” but that “it didn’t have any other significance” and that he is not in a gang.

Francisco Javier García Casique

Francisco Javier García Casique’s family suspects that he is among the detainees in El Salvador, the New York Times reported. García told his mother last Saturday that he was going to be deported, and that is the last she heard from him. García’s mother believes she spotted him in a picture of detainees, and says his name is no longer listed on the ICE website. According to García’s mother, he is not in a gang.

García entered the U.S. seeking asylum in 2023, and was detained last year by immigration officials and placed under investigation due to his tattoos, which include a crown and the names of his family members. He was labeled a “suspected member” of TdA, before a “judge ultimately decided that he did not pose a danger and allowed him to be released as long as he wore an electronic device to track his movements,” according to his mother. At the beginning of February, authorities took García into custody, the Times reported.

Mervin Yamarte, Ringo Rincón, Andy Javier Perozo and Edwuar Hernández

In Dallas, armed officers arrested four Venezuelan men at their home on Thursday, took them to a detention facility, and soon put them on a plane to El Salvador, according to the men’s families. Family members said that none of the men had gang affiliations and they travelled to the United States together to seek economic opportunities to support their children back in the town where they grew up together. None of the men — Mervin Yamarte, Ringo Rincón, Andy Javier Perozo and Edwuar Hernández — have local, state, or federal criminal records.

The four friends signed deportation papers thinking that they were being sent home to Venezuela, where their families were preparing to welcome them. Instead, family members of Yamarte recognized him in a video of detainees arriving at the prison posted by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. The mother of one of the other men recognized her son in another photo from the prison and the families assume that all four men are in El Salvador.

A Venezuelan artist seeking asylum

An attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) posted on Bluesky that the center had lost contact with one of its clients and believes that he is now being held in El Salvador. The client, who is LGBTQ and worked in the arts in Venezuela, came to the US seeking protection but was held by ICE for several months. The agency used the client’s tattoos as “evidence” that he is a member of TdA.

ImmDef attorneys expected to see their client at an immigration court hearing last Thursday, but he was absent and ICE did not explain where he was. ImmDef has not been able to contact the client since then, the Texas facility where he was being detained said he was no longer there, and he is no longer listed in an online detainee locator.