WASHINGTON >> A U.S. judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to explain whether it defied a court order by deporting hundreds of Venezuelans the White House says are violent criminals, a move officials defended but several legal experts said was clearly unlawful.

The Trump administration deported more than 200 Venezuelans it says were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that has been linked to kidnapping, extortion and contract killings, to El Salvador over the weekend.

The White House asserted on Sunday that federal courts “have no jurisdiction” over President Donald Trump’s authority to expel foreign enemies under an 18th-century law historically used only in wartime, though it also said it had complied with the order.

Judge James Boasberg in Washington set a hearing for 5 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) on Monday and instructed the government to provide details on the timing of the flights that transported the Venezuelans to El Salvador, including whether they took off after his order was issued.

Several legal experts interviewed by Reuters viewed the flights as a direct challenge to the judicial branch’s independence.

Trump has sought to push the boundaries of executive power since taking office in January, cutting spending authorized by Congress, dismantling agencies and firing tens of thousands of federal workers.

At an emergency hearing on Saturday requested by the American Civil Liberties Union, a civil rights group, Boasberg issued a two-week temporary block on Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out the deportations.

The judge said in court that any flights already en route should return to the U.S. On Sunday, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, posted footage on X showing men being pulled off a plane in the dark of night.

“Oopsie … too late,” Bukele wrote above a news story about the judge’s order.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a White House briefing on Monday that all flights subject to Boasberg’s order had taken off prior to its issuance.

“This administration acted within the confines of the law,” she said.

But legal experts said the plane’s location in the air was irrelevant.

Michael J. Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, said the argument “borders on the absurd” and was “contrary to well settled constitutional law” holding that federal officials are subject to the Constitution no matter where they are.

“A governmental plane on governmental business is not in a law-free zone,” Gerhardt said, adding: “If that is not the case, then the government can simply do anything it apparently wants to do so long as it is not operating any longer on American soil.”

With the Republican-controlled Congress largely backing his agenda, federal judges have often been the only constraint on his executive actions, putting many on hold while they consider their legality. In some cases, advocacy groups have said the administration is refusing to comply with judicial orders.

ALIEN ENEMIES ACT

Trump used the Alien Enemies Act, which gives the president the wartime authority to deport non-citizens whose primary allegiance is to a foreign power, to carry out many of the deportations.

It has been invoked just three times: during the War of 1812, World War One and most recently World War Two, when it was used to justify the mass internment of people of Japanese, German and Italian descent.

Leavitt said there were 261 people deported in total, including 137 who were removed under the Alien Enemies Act and more than 100 others who were removed via standard immigration proceedings. There were also 23 Salvadoran members of the MS-13 gang, Leavitt said.

One of those Salvadorans appeared to be alleged MS-13 leader Cesar Lopez-Larios, newly unsealed U.S. court documents showed.

The U.S. Justice Department moved to drop the indictment against Lopez-Larios on March 11, according to the unsealed documents, “due to geopolitical and national security concerns.” John Durham, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a March 16 court filing that Lopez-Larios had been removed to El Salvador.

Lopez-Larios was arrested by U.S. authorities in June 2024 and faced a multi-count federal indictment in New York for allegedly directing acts of violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking.

The Trump administration has variously described the deported Venezuelans as gang members, “monsters,” or “alien terrorists,” but has not provided evidence to back up its assertions, and the ACLU has criticized authorities for falsely applying the label.

Four Democratic senators on Monday called Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act for immigration enforcement an “unlawful and brazen power grab.”

“All of us, including the courts, must continue to hold this administration accountable, and prevent the Trump administration from taking us down a dark and dangerous road,” Senators Dick Durbin, Alex Padilla, Cory Booker, and Peter Welch said in a statement.

Asked on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program on Monday what would come next, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said: “Another flight, another flight every day.”

“We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think,” he added.