Despite the judge's order, at least 137 Venezuelans who the administration alleges belong to the Tren de Aragua gang were handed over to authorities in El Salvador, where they are being held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. Washington is paying the Central American country's government $6 million to house them.

A federal judge posed a new threat to President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, telling government lawyers he may order the US to facilitate the return of alleged Venezuelan gang members who were deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

New details deepen questions about the deportations, showing that El Salvador’s president pressed for assurances that the migrants were really members of the Tren de Aragua gang.