The White House defended its decision to proceed with multiple deportation flights over the weekend after a federal judge ordered President Donald Trump to pause the flights while courts determine his legal footing.

The White House is denying that it violated a judge’s order Saturday to halt the deportations of Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, which, if it did occur, would take legal showdowns over the administration’s claims of vast presidential power closer to the edge of a constitutional crisis.

Tren de Aragua, a gang born out of a Venezuelan prison, is a loose network that doesn’t operate like groups typically considered terrorist organizations.

After his administration appeared to defy court orders and deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants over the weekend, President Donald Trump applauded the move on social media. "These are the monsters sent into our Country by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats.