After Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, the ACLU sued to stop the deportations, which were already in the process of happening on Saturday. Planes were in the air, and based on the publicly available information, at least some of the people being flown to El Salvador had not been handed over to that country yet when the judge issued his ruling.

The Trump administration has sent more than 200 alleged gang members to a prison in El Salvador, in a move that has sparked claims that it has defied a judge's order. The White House has denied "refusing to comply" with the order, saying instead that it had "no legal basis" and that it had been issued after the plane had taken off.