By Ted Hesson and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration deported more alleged Venezuelan and MS-13 gang members to El Salvador over the weekend, sending 17 more people it says were foreign criminals, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

The group of alleged violent criminals tied to Tren de Aragua and MS-13 was transported by the U.S. military on Sunday night, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, adding that the deportees included murderers and rapists. 

Trump, a Republican, took office in January vowing to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally as part of a wide-ranging immigration crackdown. Earlier this month, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that historically has been used only in wartime, to target alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged Trump’s use of the law, saying it denies the migrants the due process promised by the U.S. Constitution to contest the basis for their removal. Family members of some of those deported have denied that they have gang ties. 

A U.S. federal appeals court last week upheld a lower court’s block on Trump’s use of the law to rapidly deport alleged gang members. The Trump administration has said it would continue to use other legal authorities for deportations. Rubio did not say which authorities were used for Sunday’s deportations.

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the halt on Trump’s use of the law.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said in a post on X that the deportees were “confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, including six child rapists.” A list of 16 deportees published by a Fox News reporter and confirmed by the White House showed 12 people with criminal convictions, one self-admitted gang member, and three facing charges.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Susan Heavey, Editing by Nick Zieminski and Andrea Ricci)