Donald Trump has made mass deportations one of his main priorities since assuming office.
The crackdown has seen controversial deportations to El Salvador’s mega prison, a surge in immigration arrests and plans to revamp Guantanamo Bay to hold thousands of migrants.
As the US Supreme Court issues an emergency order to halt further deportations of Venezuelans, we explain the rush of Trump administration deportations.
Why has the focus on deportations intensified?
On 15 March, the Trump administration deported more than 130 alleged Venezuelan gang members to the notorious CECOT supermax prison in El Salvador.
Many of the migrants’ lawyers and family members say they were not members of the Tren de Aragua gang and had no chance to dispute the government’s assertion that they were.
There is a parallel legal dispute over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian citizen living in Maryland, who the Justice Department admits was mistakenly deported to his home country.
Mr Garcia was not charged or convicted of any crimes in the US or El Salvador. The government alleges he is a member of the MS-13 gang – something his lawyers deny.
Although a judge has ordered his return, the Trump administration says he is outside their jurisdiction and that the decision on whether he is returned is solely up to El Salvador.
What does an 18th-century wartime law have to do with it?
The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport immigrants they identified as criminals, regardless of their immigration status.
The act has only been invoked three times in US history, most recently during the Second World War to hold Japanese-American civilians in internment camps.
On 9 April the Supreme Court ruled the law could be used by the Trump administration to deport Venezuelan immigrants it accused of being gang members – but only with a court hearing.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said migrants were not being given the opportunity to challenge the orders, and asked the Supreme Court to urgently intervene.
On 18 April, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the removal of Venezuelan migrants from northern Texas after the ACLU reported some of the men had been loaded onto buses and were told they would be deported without due process.
The White House has yet to comment on the Supreme Court’s latest ruling.
Mr Trump has previously said he supports the removal of “bad people”.
Where are people being deported to?
Some countries – including Venezuela – do not accept deportations from the United States.
This has led the Trump administration to strike agreements with other countries – including El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama – to take migrants.
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Other challenges to the deportation drive
Human rights lawyers are suing Costa Rica, alleging the Central American nation violated the rights of dozens of migrant children – some as young as two – by detaining them in a rural camp for nearly two months after they were deported from America in February.
The children are part of a group of hundreds of migrants from mostly Asian countries, including Afghanistan, China, and Russia.
While Costa Rica and Panama were originally intended as a kind of deportation layover, the migrants have now spent 50 days in limbo.
The same group of lawyers have filed a similar case against Panama, which was holding migrants in hotels and in remote camps near the Darien Gap, where deportees said they were stripped of their phones.
Sharp criticisms prompted the Panamanian government to release the migrants on the streets of Panama City last month, leaving many migrants to fend for themselves.
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What do the statistics say?
Following Mr Trump’s return to the White House, data from Customs and Border Protection shows unauthorised crossings at the southern border have plummeted.
Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations have doubled, and the number of people in detention is at an all-time high, according to Sky News’ US partner, NBC News.
But it’s worth noting that despite Mr Trump’s efforts, data obtained by NBC News shows the Trump administration’s deportations during his first full month in office were running slightly behind deportations under Joe Biden at the same time last year.
