The confrontation with the courts did not wait a hundred days. As early as March 15, 2025, the contours of the constitutional crisis feared by many law experts were laid. On that day, the Trump administration launched two migrant planes from an airport in the southern US to El Salvador. On board were 137 men from Venezuela, mostly without criminal records, along with 100 others who were subject to deportation orders. Among them were 23 Salvadorans, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old laborer from Maryland, who would become the emblem of Donald Trump's desire to deport whomever he pleases without judicial procedure.

The administration had been careful to prepare the ground. On March 14, the president signed a "proclamation "invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to respond to the "invasion of the United States by Tren de Aragua," the Venezuelan gang he has made his number one enemy. The legislation, used only three times in American history, allows the president to expel any person originating from a country in conflict with the US.

Salvadoran Abrego Garcia was not among those "suspects" deported under these exceptional powers. He was put on the plane despite having legal status that protects him from being sent back to a country where he is threatened with persecution. The Department of Homeland Security quickly acknowledged it as an "administrative error."

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