Mega-prison hellhole. El Salvador strongman President Nayib Bukele opened what he called the Terrorism Confinement Center in 2023. The mega-prison has a capacity for 40,000 inmates. It’s where President Trump has started sending men whom he suspects to be Venezuela gang members. At least some haven’t had their day in court, according to civil rights advocates. Image: Nayib Bukele
Bukele. El Salvador oresident nce 2019. Known for strong-arm tactics to impose policies. Prefers to be called “your excellency.” Among autocrats publicly admired by Trump.
Gamesmanship: President taunts judge to showdown
WASHINGTON – President Trump claimed victory in getting two plane loads of immigrants in the air before receiving a judge’s order to halt the plane. A Trump spokesperson said the planes were already over international waters. “Federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs,” the Trump spokesperson said. The planes, two Global X Airline A320s, delivered the 249detainees to El Salvador. The detainees then were bused to the country’s gruesome 40,000-inmate mega-prison 45 miles from the San Salvador airport. There were immediate questions in Washington whether Trump had defied the judge’s order intentionally and thus created a constitutional crisis over the separation of executive branch and judicial branch authority. The White House refused to confirm a timeline. From various sources this much is known:
> Trump was aware on Saturday afternoon, if not earlier, that the American Civil Liberties Union, was asking a judge in Washington for a temporary restraining rder to stop the flights. The ACLU was acting on behalf of eight detainees.
> To evade a possible restraining order, Trump ordered the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to accelerate the scheduled deportation. It was a game: Getting the planes fueled, prepared, staffed and in the air before the judge could act.
Shackled, cuffed. Forced to bend. With scalp wound after weeks in U.S. detention. Among 242 U.S. detainees being deboarded one at a time from a Trump-charted prison flight to El Salvador. Are they all members of the Venezuela gang Tren de Aragu? Are all guilty of violent crimes? Trump thinks so. Has a court reviewed their cases, per constitutional American judicial oprinciples? No. How about juries? No. This image is among hundreds available online from the prison itself in perverse don’t-mess-with-us messaging. Image: Nayib Bukele
A note
Dearest Reader:
We at the Winona Journal know our limits. We barely have the resources to cover everything we would like jn our news-rich locality. We do, however, tackle far-away news if there be a local angle. Such has been the case with arrests of brown-skin immigrants in in the Upper Midwest jurisdiction of President Trump’s immigration control agency. There have been gestapo-like detentions in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin with detainees disappearing into a secretive Trump gulag with disregard for the U.S Constitutional assurance guaranteed for citizens and non-citizens alike. Yes indeed, these deportations are local stories. And major at that.
/ John Vivian, editor
> 5 p.m. (Washington time): Knowing the clock was ticking, federal Judge James Boerberg had convened an emergency Saturday hearing to hear the ACU’s argument to postpone the deportation 15 days.> 5:22 p.m. The judge recessed the hearing and gave Trump attorneys until 6 p.m to report back on what was going on at the White House.
> 6:45 pm. GlobalX Fligt 6145 takes off from the Texas border town of Brownsville. So too did a second GlobalX plane. Typical flight tme: 2 hours and 28 minutes.
> 6:51 p.m.: GlobalX 651 was approaching the Yucatan Peninsula on the Mexican gulf coast.
> 6:52 p.m.: Judge Bierberg ordered the planes to turn around: “Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States This is something you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”
> 7:02 p.m. (Washington time): GlobalX 6145 is on the ground in San Salvador. A caravan of white prison buses was waiting to transport the U.S. detainees to prison.
> 7:26 p.m.: The judge’s written order was posted to an electronic docket.
The question whether Trump had engaged in hanky-panky seemed confirmed by Nayib Bukele, the autocratic El Salvador president. On social media Bukele mocked Judge Boerberg: “Oopsie. Too late.” With human lives and human rights at issue, Bukele’s cutesiness came across as insensitive and gross.
Earlier: Judge to Trump: Halt alien expulsions for now
GlobalX profile
This Korea-owned charter airline has its U.S. base in Miami. It specializes in cargo delivery. The 18-plane fleet: Airbus 319s, 320s and 321s. In 2025 a GlobalX flight to Brazil with deported US. immigrants made an unscheduled landing due to technical issues. The conditions on the flight, which had no air-conditioning, led to diplomatic tensions between the United States and Brazil. Brazilian government ministers described the handling of the deportees t as “unacceptable” and “degrading.”