Could you walk us through just some of the behind the scenes on how you carried out some of the deportations of the flights from being invoked under the Alien Enemies Act? How did that play out behind the scenes? Can you get a little into the timing with the judge's order?
Look, I'll -- let me say this, you know, the -- the president through proclamation took his authority under Alien Enemies Act and imposed it, which he has a right to do. Uh, TDA has been designated terrorist organizations. TDA is the enemy in this country. We know TDA based on a lot of evidence are part of the Maduro regime through the military and law enforcement.
They've infiltrated them, and look, they've -- they've invaded this country to unsettle this country to -- whether it's fentanyl killing thousands of Americans or through the violence of perpetrating our cities. The president did the right thing. I stand by it. I thought -- we removed in one day over 200 dangerous people, including MS-13. It was the right thing to do and I see the video that President Bukele put out.
It's a beautiful thing. These people are going to be held accountable.
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Is every one of those guys a member of the gang? How do you know it? And why can't they sort that out with a lawyer at a hearing, which is how it usually goes?
Look, we abided by the court's decision, his written order was on five illegal aliens, he didn't want deport them, and we abided by that. By the time the order came, the plane was already over international waters with a plane full of terrorists and significant public safety threats, and you know, to turn the plane around over international waters, refuel over international waters, come back and bring terrorists back the United States, that's not what this president promised the American people.
What the president did was exactly the right thing.
So, they're all Tren de Aragua, every guy who's on that plane?
I'm not familiar with every single case in that plane, but that's my understanding, MS-13 members and TDA members.
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Tom, a follow-on --
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And let's remember, many of those on the plane were moved through Title 8, not through the Alien Enemies Act. So, again, it's the right thing to do. That's where the -- the people -- the people of this country mandated President Trump, deal with the border crisis, deal with illegal immigration and deal with illegal alien crime, and that's exactly what we did.
We removed terrorists, that should be a celebration. We removed terrorists in this country and I stand by what the president did. I support 100 percent.
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Tom, to follow-up on that. How do you determine whether somebody is a gang member? What criteria do you use?
Through various investigations. You know, a lot of -- a lot of ways we do that, law enforcement -- I'm not going to share all that with you, but you know whether it's through social media, through the activities, uh, through their criminal records here and abroad. So, you know, this is -- this has done a very, uh -- the review of this issue was at the highest level I've seen and I think, again, I stand by everything we did this weekend.
And I think the president, keeping his promise to the American people. We -- we -- we removed terrorists from the country this weekend. I can't believe any media would question the president's ability to remove terrorists from this country.
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But what do you say -- what do you say to those who say -- what do you say to those who claim you're using a 200-year-old law to circumvent due process?
An old law? Not as old as the Constitution, we still pay attention to that? Don't we?
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But some would say this --
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How many more terrorists do you plan on deporting to El Salvador?