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James E. Boasberg, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said he needed to issue his order immediately because the government was already flying migrants it claimed were newly deportable under Trump’s proclamation to El Salvador and Honduras to be incarcerated there.

El Salvador already agreed this past week to take up to 300 migrants that the Trump administration designated as gang members.

“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,� Boasberg said during a Saturday evening hearing in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm,� he added, noting they remain in government custody but ordering that any planes in the air be turned around.

The ruling came hours after Trump claimed the Venezuelan gang  was invading the United States and invoked , a sweeping wartime authority that allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations.

The act has only been used three times before in U.S. history, all during wars. Its most recent application was during World War II, when it was used to incarcerate Germans and Italians as well as for the mass internment of Japanese-American civilians.

In a proclamation released just over an hour before Boasberg's hearing, Trump contended that Tren de Aragua was effectively at war with the United States.

“Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA,� Trump’s statement reads. “The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.�

The order could let the administration deport any migrant it identifies as a member of the gang without going through regular immigration proceedings, and also could remove other protections under criminal law for people the government targeted.

The Tren de Aragua gang originated in a prison in the South American country and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the overwhelming majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their nation’s economy came undone last decade. It was formally designated a “foreign terrorist organization� last month.

The government said Trump actually signed the order Friday night. Immigration lawyers noticed the federal government suddenly moving to deport Venezuelans who they would not otherwise have the legal right to expel from the country, and scrambled to file lawsuits to block what they believed was a pending proclamation.

Boasberg issued an initial order at 9:20 a.m. Saturday blocking the Trump administration from deporting five Venezuelans named as plaintiffs in the ACLU suit who were being detained by the government and believed they were about to be deported.

The Trump administration appealed that order, contending that halting a presidential act before it is announced would cripple the executive branch.

If the order were allowed to stand, "district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action just upon receipt of a complaint,� the Justice Department wrote in its appeal.

Boasberg then scheduled the afternoon hearing on whether to expand his order to all people who could be targeted under Trump's declaration.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign contended the president had broad latitude to identify threats to the country and act under the 1798 law. He noted the U.S. Supreme Court allowed President Harry Truman to continue to hold a German citizen in 1948, three years after World War II ended, under the measure.

Lee Gelernt of the ACLU contended that Trump didn't have the authority to use it against a criminal gang rather than a recognized state.

Boasberg said the ACLU had a reasonable chance of success on those arguments, and so the order was merited. He halted deportations for those in custody for up to 14 days, and scheduled a Friday hearing in the case.

Trump's administration agreed to pay El Salvador $6 million to imprison for one year about 300 alleged members of the gang, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press.

The agreement follows discussions between El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio about housing migrants in El Salvador's notorious prison. Bukele's government arrested more than 84,000 people, sometimes without due process, since 2022 as part of his crackdown on gang violence in the small country.

Memos detailing the transfer did not disclose how the Trump administration identified the roughly 300 people as members of Tren de Aragua.

The Central American nation and Trump administration last month struck a deal to house migrants detained in the U.S. The Trump administration contended that El Salvador could even house American citizens, though the U.S. cannot deport its own citizens to another country.