The Trump administration says the group should be treated as an invading force. Critics say it’s a pretext for the administration’s anti-immigrant narrative.

President Donald Trump used wartime authority to deport nearly 240 alleged Latin American gang members to a mega-prison in El Salvador over the weekend. A federal judge unsuccessfully sought to block the administration’s actions,

El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison was notorious long before the Trump administration’s recent decision to deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members there.