Trump hits back after Obama judge tried to block migrant deportation flights - as White House exploits ingenious loophole | 17 March 2025 | President Donald Trump denied that he refused a court order to turn around two planeloads of illegal Venezuelan gang members who were being deported from the United States. Trump defended his operation to deport back to El Salvador the 200 "monsters" who were linked to gangs responsible for kidnapping, extortion, and contract killings. A federal judge, at the last minute, tried to block the planes when they were already in the air due to Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to make the deportations. But Trump said: "These were bad people. That was a bad group of, as I say, hombres." Asked about using the controversial law outside of wartime, Trump added: "This is a time of war because Biden allowed millions of people -- many of them criminals, many of them at the highest level. They emptied jails out -- other nations. It's an invasion and these are criminals."