US deports hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador despite court order

Venezuela criticised invoking the wartime measure, saying it "unjustly criminalises Venezuelan migration" and "evokes the darkest episodes in the history of humanity, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps".

After hearing that planes with deportees had taken off, Judge Boasberg ordered them to turn back, the Washington Post reported.

Rubio said in a statement on Sunday that the deportations happened under the Alien Enemies Act, and made no mention of the judge's ruling.

He said: "Hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country."

Their deportation despite the judge's ruling has raised legal questions.

A lawyer from a rights group involved in the lawsuit against the White House said she had asked the government on Sunday whether the court's order had been violated.

"[We] are waiting to hear, as well as trying to do our own investigation," Lee Gelernt with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement.

The Department of Justice had appealed against the judge's ruling overnight, according to the BBC's media partner CBS News.

The BBC has contacted the Justice Department for comment.

A video attached to one of Bukele's social media post shows lines of people with their hands and feet shackled being escorted by armed officials from the planes.

Some are placed into the back of armoured vehicles, while others, hunched over as officers push their heads down, are forced onto buses.

The video also shows an aerial view of a long, winding police escort leading the buses into El Salvador's Cecot jail.

The newly built maximum-security jail is part of Bukele's effort to crack down on the country's organised crime.

The facility, which can hold up to 40,000 people, has been criticised by human rights groups for maltreatment of inmates.