section_path: Background/Trump administration deportation policy
section_name: Trump administration deportation policy
paragraph_text: Trump administration deportation policy
  
  During his 2024 campaign for president of the United States, Donald Trump pledged that if elected, he would enact the largest mass deportation operation in US history against both authorized and unauthorized immigrants in the United States and that he would deport over 10 million people through sweeping immigration raids. After Trump's inauguration, he began an immigration crackdown. By April 2025, attempted border crossings into the US dropped dramatically, with arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doubling and the number of people in immigration detention reaching an all-time high. To facilitate mass arrests, the Trump administration removed a rule protecting migrants from arrest in sensitive places such as schools, churches, hospitals, and courtrooms, and approved the removal of migrants temporarily admitted by the Biden administration.
  
  In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order designating transnational gangs such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. In February, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele offered the US the use of El Salvador's CECOT, a prison notorious for harsh conditions, to imprison criminal deportees of any nationality, including Americans. After diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration, El Salvador agreed to imprison deportees from the US at CECOT for US$ 6 million per year. As president of El Salvador, Bukele has been criticized for bypassing due process and imprisoning people without ties to gangs, after a 2022 declaration of a state of emergency empowered him to carry out mass arrests. During the Biden administration, the US Treasury department had sanctioned two officials in Bukele's government while alleging that Bukele's administration had provided financial incentives to gang leaders to keep homicides low and to provide support in elections. In the second Trump administration, however, Bukele has positioned El Salvador as a key ally of the United States.
  
  In March, the US deported hundreds of Venezuelans and dozens of Salvadorans to be imprisoned in CECOT. It accused the Venezuelans of being members of Tren de Aragua and the Salvadorans of being members of MS-13. El Salvador's ambassador to the United States, Milena Mayorga, said that Bukele had specifically asked for MS-13 leaders to be included among those deported to El Salvador as "an issue of honor". However, most deportees had no criminal history and were detained based on evidence such as tattoos and clothing that the Trump administration said were proof of gang ties.
  
  Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA), which gives the president wartime authority to summarily arrest and deport citizens of a nation at war with or invading the US. He declared that Tren de Aragua was perpetrating an invasion of the United States, and used the AEA to deport many of the Venezuelans to CECOT. Salvadorans and other Venezuelans were sent to CECOT on another flight the same day via regular deportation. The deportees arrived in El Salvador after the judge in J.G.G. v. Trump had issued a temporary restraining order that paused deportations under the AEA and ordered any such flights stopped or turned around. In response, Bukele wrote on social media: "Oopsie... Too late 😂."
  
  During his 2024 campaign for president of the United States, Donald Trump pledged that if elected, he would enact the largest mass deportation operation in US history against both authorized and unauthorized immigrants in the United States and that he would deport over 10 million people through sweeping immigration raids. After Trump's inauguration, he began an immigration crackdown. By April 2025, attempted border crossings into the US dropped dramatically, with arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doubling and the number of people in immigration detention reaching an all-time high. To facilitate mass arrests, the Trump administration removed a rule protecting migrants from arrest in sensitive places such as schools, churches, hospitals, and courtrooms, and approved the removal of migrants temporarily admitted by the Biden administration.
  
  In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order designating transnational gangs such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. In February, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele offered the US the use of El Salvador's CECOT, a prison notorious for harsh conditions, to imprison criminal deportees of any nationality, including Americans. After diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration, El Salvador agreed to imprison deportees from the US at CECOT for US$ 6 million per year. As president of El Salvador, Bukele has been criticized for bypassing due process and imprisoning people without ties to gangs, after a 2022 declaration of a state of emergency empowered him to carry out mass arrests. During the Biden administration, the US Treasury department had sanctioned two officials in Bukele's government while alleging that Bukele's administration had provided financial incentives to gang leaders to keep homicides low and to provide support in elections. In the second Trump administration, however, Bukele has positioned El Salvador as a key ally of the United States.
  
  In March, the US deported hundreds of Venezuelans and dozens of Salvadorans to be imprisoned in CECOT. It accused the Venezuelans of being members of Tren de Aragua and the Salvadorans of being members of MS-13. El Salvador's ambassador to the United States, Milena Mayorga, said that Bukele had specifically asked for MS-13 leaders to be included among those deported to El Salvador as "an issue of honor". However, most deportees had no criminal history and were detained based on evidence such as tattoos and clothing that the Trump administration said were proof of gang ties.
  
  Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA), which gives the president wartime authority to summarily arrest and deport citizens of a nation at war with or invading the US. He declared that Tren de Aragua was perpetrating an invasion of the United States, and used the AEA to deport many of the Venezuelans to CECOT. Salvadorans and other Venezuelans were sent to CECOT on another flight the same day via regular deportation. The deportees arrived in El Salvador after the judge in J.G.G. v. Trump had issued a temporary restraining order that paused deportations under the AEA and ordered any such flights stopped or turned around. In response, Bukele wrote on social media: "Oopsie... Too late 😂."