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.

The immigrants were deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has been used only three times prior and requires a president to declare the United States is at war.

A plane carrying more than 200 Venezuelans deported by the US has landed in El Salvador, hours after a US judge ordered the Trump administration not to do so.

Hundreds of mostly Venezuelan alleged gang members were deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador on Sunday, with the Trump administration invoking wartime powers to speed up removals despite a court ruling halting the move.

The White House said it followed the court’s written ruling. The judge verbally instructed planes en route to turn around.

It was not immediately clear if the deportations happened before or after a federal judge in D.C. on Saturday issued an emergency order that told the administration to stop using wartime powers to deport anyone,