The White House said it was acting within the “confines of the law” after carrying out deportations of immigrants it says are members of a Venezuelan gang. A judge had ordered a block to those deportation flights.

A US judge ordered Trump administration officials to explain whether they violated his order by deporting hundreds of alleged Venezuela gang members over the weekend. 

Trump administration officials on Sunday announced the deportation of hundreds of immigrants who the White House alleges are members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador.

The deportations were carried out under an 18th-century wartime declaration — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — targeting Venezuelan gang members.

They came after a judge temporarily blocked the effort Saturday, but lawyers told the judge that two planes with immigrants were already in the air at the time of the ruling — with one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras.

“This administration acted within the confines of the law,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday. 

In a statement on Sunday, Leavitt said: “The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.”

The acronym refers to the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang, whose members Trump said could be arrested, restrained and removed from the country.