By TIM SULLIVAN AND ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press

The U.S. deported hundreds of immigrants after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, using the sweeping powers of a centuries-old wartime law to target alleged members of a Venezuelan gang. The deportations over the weekend came as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring them.

The act gives allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge. Trump’s Saturday proclamation called the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.

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The administration has not identified who was deported, provided any evidence they are gang members or that they committed any crimes in the United States.

The Tren de Aragua gang originated in Venezuela, but the deportees were sent to El Salvador after the Trump administration agreed to pay $6 million for 300 alleged members to be imprisoned there for a year. Venezuela typically does not agree to accept its citizens deported by the U.S., though it has done so on a few occasions. The U.S. also sent back two top members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang to El Salvador.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, issued an order temporarily blocking the deportations, but lawyers said two planes with immigrants were already in the air. Boasberg then verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but the flights continued.

Trump repeatedly said during his campaign that he would use extraordinary powers to confront illegal immigration and laid additional groundwork in a slew of executive orders since his return to office.

What is the Alien Enemies Act?

In 1798, with the U.S. preparing for what it believed would be a war with France, Congress passed a series of laws that increased the federal government’s reach. The Alien Enemies Act was created to give the president wide powers to imprison and deport noncitizens in time of war.

Since then, the act has been used just three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.

It was part of the World War II legal rationale for mass internments in the U.S. of people of German, Italian and especially Japanese ancestry. An estimated 120,000 people with Japanese heritage, including those with U.S. citizenship, were incarcerated.

What brought this to a head on a Saturday?

The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward preemptively sued Trump late Friday saying five Venezuelan men held at a Texas immigration detention center were at “imminent risk of removal” under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg blocked their deportation, prompting an immediate Justice Department appeal.

Almost simultaneously, the Trump administration agreed to the payment to El Salvador, where the government of President Nayib Bukele has arrested more than 84,000 people, sometimes without due process, in a crackdown on gang violence, often sending suspects to a notorious mega-prison.

The U.S. isn’t at war, is it?

For years, Trump and his allies have argued that the U.S. is facing an “invasion” of people arriving in the country illegally.

Arrests on the U.S. border with Mexico topped 2 million a year for two straight years for the first time under President Joe Biden, with many released into the U.S. to pursue asylum. After hitting an all-time monthly high of 250,000 in December 2023, they dropped sharply in 2024 and even more after Trump took office, reaching less than 8,400 in February — the lowest level since the 1960s.

Administration officials use military terminology to describe the situation. In his Saturday declaration, Trump said Tren de Aragua “is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion” against U.S. territory.

On Sunday he went further when speaking to reporters on Air Force One, saying: “This is a time of war.”

Critics say Trump is wrongly using the act.

“The Alien Enemies Act may be used only during declared wars or armed attacks on the United States by foreign governments,” The Brennan Center for Justice said in a Saturday statement. “The president has falsely proclaimed an invasion and predatory incursion to use a law written for wartime for peacetime immigration enforcement.”

Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The big question facing the Twins for much of this spring was what they would do at second base, where they have an opening there for the taking.

Now, they face another big question: How about third base?

After Royce Lewis strained his hamstring running to first base in Sunday’s spring game, the Twins are now considering how they will fill the hole at the hot corner. Lewis was sent for imaging on Monday, which revealed a moderate left hamstring strain.

The Twins have ruled Lewis out for Opening Day on March 27 in St. Louis and won’t have a timetable for his return until they see how he responds to treatment.

With Opening Day rapidly approaching, the Twins have internal options such as Jose Miranda, Brooks Lee and Willi Castro who could fill in there.

“We have a bunch of (spring) games left … and we’re going to have a little bit of movement in our lineups as a whole,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I’m pretty sure almost every day we’re going to have some movement there, get them some work in different places. So, I wouldn’t lock in on any one particular thing, but we’re going to get some guys moving around.”

For just the second time this spring, Lee was at third base on Monday when the Twins were in Bradenton to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Lee has primarily been playing shortstop and second this spring while battling for a roster spot, but with Lewis now injured his chances of making the team seem much more secure.

Miranda, whose seven starts at third this spring are second behind Lewis this spring, was expected to see some playing time there, as well at first base and designated hitter. Now, it seems as if he’ll get a heavier dose of third base in Lewis’s absence.

Castro, who made 27 starts at third base last year, could see time there as well, although the Twins seem to prefer his defense at second. Castro and Lee can play shortstop if Carlos Correa needs a day off, as well.

Injuries have been a problem for Lewis, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft. He has twice blown out his right knee, once in spring training and once in the majors, and last season missed time with quad and groin injuries. His 82 major league games played last year are a career high.

Beyond third base, the Twins need to sort through extra outfielders Austin Martin and DaShawn Kiersey Jr., and infielders Edouard Julien and Mickey Gasper. All are on the 40-man roster and remain in major league camp.

While Martin is the more likely of the two outfielders to win a spot, the infield seems to be much more up in the air. If Castro is more of a regular at second to begin the season, the Twins could potentially opt for Gasper, who can play first and second, preferring Julien — who hit .199 with a .292 on-base percentage last season — to get everyday at-bats at Triple-A St. Paul.

No matter what way they’re leaning, Lewis’s injury means there is plenty left to be decided before camp breaks next Thursday.

“We’re prepared to answer the questions that are in front of us,” Baldelli said. “How it looks in spring training, the visuals will tell you something, but there’s also a lot else to be considered.”

With Republican President Donald Trump’s return to office this year, Big Tech leaders from Silicon Valley’s largest companies — all fighting federal anti-monopoly lawsuits launched under Trump’s previous term and the Democratic Biden administration that followed — have made unprecedented peace offerings.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple CEO Tim Cook sat behind Trump on his inauguration stage in January. Google and Meta, and Cook personally, donated $1 million each to his inauguration committee. Google and Meta have retreated from diversity programs and social media content moderation that the president has criticized.

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But so far, the Trump administration is still using antitrust law to pursue anti-monopoly actions against the three companies and against Amazon, based in Washington state, which also backed off from diversity efforts and donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, where its executive chairman Jeff Bezos sat on stage beside Pichai.

“I have been encouraged that the administration has not fallen into the predictable pattern of prior Republican administrations taking a hands-off approach,” said Stanford Law School professor Mark Lemley, who teaches antitrust law.

“It remains to be seen whether some of the tech billionaires sucking up to Trump, particularly Zuckerberg and Bezos, will persuade him to overrule his antitrust heads and drop their cases,” Lemley said, but he added “there are a number of indications that the Trump administration may continue aggressive antitrust enforcement, particularly against big tech.”

In a signal earlier this month that the legal actions targeting Silicon Valley may keep moving ahead in the second Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice repeated its demand, made under former President Joe Biden in November, that Google sell off its hugely popular and valuable Chrome internet browser.

“These cases are immensely consequential for these companies,” said Sam Weinstein, a former U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawyer and UC Berkeley law school fellow, now a professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York City. “Google and Meta face the possibility of being broken up.”

Changes sought by the government in the Apple lawsuit appear “less of an existential threat,” Weinstein said, “but it would still be a significant loss for the company.” Amazon’s business model and structure are also at risk, he added.

In 2020, the Justice Department sued Google over its internet search apps and related advertising, alleging deals it made with companies, including device manufacturers like Apple and wireless carriers like AT&T were intended to maintain a monopoly that strips choice from consumers.

Google in a 2023 blog post called the lawsuit “deeply flawed,” arguing that “people don’t use Google because they have to — they use it because they want to.” In August, Washington, D.C., federal court Judge Amit Mehta ruled “Google is a monopolist.” Mehta will weigh the Justice Department’s demand to force a sale of Chrome. Evidentiary hearings are to start April 21.

In 2023, the Justice Department again sued Google, claiming the Mountain View digital-advertising giant holds a monopoly on software that puts ads on web pages. Google in a 2023 court filing denied it has such a monopoly and said in a September blog post, “We already go above and beyond legal requirements in making tools that others can use.”

The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Apple claimed the Cupertino iPhone titan “illegally maintains a monopoly over smartphones” through conduct making it harder for consumers to switch to other companies’ devices. The lawsuit asked the court to limit Apple’s control over app distribution and bar contracts with third parties that support an alleged monopoly.

Apple in an August court filing claimed the lawsuit was “based on the false premise that iPhone’s success has come not through building a superior product that consumers trust and love, but through Apple’s intentional degradation of iPhone to block purported competitive threats.”

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s 2020 lawsuit against Meta’s Facebook alleged the Menlo Park social media behemoth holds a monopoly it has protected via purchase of budding rival Instagram in 2012 and messaging app WhatsApp two years later. That case in Washington, D.C., federal court is scheduled for trial April 14, with Meta CEO Zuckerberg set to testify.

The FTC in a 2021 court filing demanded Meta be ordered to sell or “reconstruct” Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta this week told this news organization it was confident that “evidence at trial will show that the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have been good for competition and consumers,” and that the FTC action shows “businesses can be punished for innovating.”

Amazon, accused by the FTC in a 2023 lawsuit of “exclusionary conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging,” said in a court filing last year that its matching of rivals’ discounts, recommendations of competitively priced offers, and fast, reliable shipping are “commonplace” and promote competition.

As the cases progress, many eyes are on Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department antitrust division, Gail Slater. She is a former FTC lawyer and former head attorney for a now-defunct Big Tech lobby group, and was confirmed March 11 by the U.S. Senate to head the department. In written responses to Senate questions before her confirmation, Slater said she would prioritize anti-monopoly enforcement against Big Tech.

The FTC declined this week to say whether it was committed to its antitrust cases, and the Justice Department did not respond to questions.

Should federal agencies drop antitrust cases against the tech firms, co-plaintiff state attorneys general in the Apple, Google and Amazon cases could keep the lawsuits alive. But, said Stanford’s Lemley, courts would be less likely to force major structural changes on the companies, and some Republican-led states could drop out.

How important the cases are to the Trump administration is an open question, Weinstein said.

“The list of things that are on the administration’s mind is very long,” Weinstein said, “and antitrust might be very far down to the bottom.”

By MEGAN JANETSKY

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The videos roll through TikTok in 30-second flashes.

Migrants trek in camouflage through dry desert terrain. Dune buggies roar up to the United States-Mexico border barrier. Families with young children pass through gaps in the wall. Helicopters, planes, yachts, tunnels and jet skis stand by for potential customers.

Laced with emojis, the videos posted by smugglers offer a simple promise: If you don’t have a visa in the U.S., trust us. We’ll get you over safely.

At a time when legal pathways to the U.S. have been slashed and criminal groups are raking in money from migrant smuggling, social media apps like TikTok have become an essential tool for smugglers and migrants alike. The videos — taken to cartoonish extremes — offer a rare look inside a long elusive industry and the narratives used by trafficking networks to fuel migration north.

“With God’s help, we’re going to continue working to fulfill the dreams of foreigners. Safe travels without robbing our people,” wrote one enterprising smuggler.

As President Donald Trump begins to ramp up a crackdown at the border and migration levels to the U.S. dip, smugglers say new technologies allow networks to be more agile in the face of challenges, and expand their reach to new customers — a far cry from the old days when each village had its trusted smuggler.

“In this line of work, you have to switch tactics,” said a woman named Soary, part of a smuggling network bringing migrants from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition that her last name would not be shared out of concern that authorities would track her down. “TikTok goes all over the world.”

Soary, 24, began working in smuggling when she was 19, living in El Paso, where she was approached by a friend about a job. She would use her truck to pick up migrants who had recently jumped the border. Despite the risks involved with working with trafficking organizations, she said it earned her more as a single mother than her previous job putting in hair extensions.

As she gained more contacts on both sides of the border, she began connecting people from across the Americas with a network of smugglers to sneak them across borders and eventually into the U.S.

Like many smugglers, she would take videos of migrants speaking to the camera after crossing the border to send over WhatsApp as evidence to loved ones that her clients had gotten to their destination safely. Now she posts those clips to TikTok.

TikTok says the platform strictly prohibits human smuggling and reports such content to law enforcement.

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The use of social media to facilitate migration took off around 2017 and 2018, when activists built massive WhatsApp groups to coordinate the first major migrant caravans traveling from Central America to the U.S., according to Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University focused on the migrant smuggling industry.

Later, smugglers began to infiltrate those chats and use the choice social media app of the day, expanding to Facebook and Instagram.

Migrants, too, began to document their often perilous voyages north, posting videos trekking through the jungles of the Darien Gap dividing Colombia and Panama, and after being released by extorting cartels.

A 2023 study by the United Nations reported that 64% of the migrants they interviewed had access to a smart phone and the internet during their migration to the U.S.

Around the time of the study’s release, as use of the app began to soar, that Correa-Cabrera said she began to see smuggling ads skyrocket on TikTok.

“It’s a marketing strategy,” Correa-Cabrera said. “Everyone was on TikTok, particularly after the pandemic, and then it began to multiply.”

Last year, Soary, the smuggler, said she began to publish videos of migrants and families in the U.S. with their faces covered and photos of the U.S.-Mexico border with messages like: “We’ll pass you through Ciudad Juárez, no matter where you are. Fence jumping, treks and by tunnel. Adults, children and the elderly.”

Hundreds of videos examined by the AP feature thick wads of cash, people crossing through the border fence by night, helicopters and airplanes supposedly used by coyotes, smugglers cutting open cacti in the desert for migrants to drink from and even crops of lettuce with text reading “The American fields are ready!”

The videos are often layered over heavy northern Mexican music with lyrics waxing romantically about being traffickers. Videos are published by accounts with names alluding to “safe crossing,” “USA destinations,” “fulfilling dreams” or “polleros,” as smugglers are often called.

Narratives shift based on the political environment and immigration policies in the U.S. During the Biden administration, posts would advertise getting migrants access to asylum applications through the administration’s CBP One app, which Trump ended.

Amid Trump’s crackdown, posts have shifted to dispelling fears that migrants will be captured, promising American authorities have been paid off. Smugglers openly taunt U.S. authorities: one shows himself smoking what appears to be marijuana right in front of the border wall; another even takes a jab at Trump, referring to the president as a “high-strung gringo.”

Comments are dotted with emojis of flags and baby chickens, a symbol meaning migrant among smugglers, and other users asking for prices and more information.

Cristina, who migrated because she struggled make ends meet in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, was among those scrolling in December after the person she had hired to smuggle her to the U.S. abandoned her and her partner in Ciudad Juárez.

“In a moment of desperation, I started searching on TikTok and, well, with the algorithm videos began to pop up,” she said. “It took me a half an hour” to find a smuggler.

After connecting, smugglers and migrants often negotiate on encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, doing a careful dance to gain each other’s trust. Cristina, now living in Phoenix, said she decided to trust Soary because she was a woman and posted videos of families, something the smuggler admitted was a tactic to gain migrants’ trust.

Smugglers, migrants and authorities warn that such videos have been used to scam migrants or lure them into traps at a time when cartels are increasingly using kidnapping and extortion as a means to rake in more money.

One smuggler, who asked to only be identified by his TikTok name “The Corporation” due to fear of authorities tracking him down said other accounts would steal his migrant smuggling network’s videos of customers saying to camera they arrived safely in the U.S.

“And there’s not much we can do legally. I mean, it’s not like we can report them,” he said with a laugh.

In other cases, migrants say that they were forced by traffickers to take the videos even if they haven’t arrived safely to their destinations.

The illicit advertisements have fueled concern among international authorities like the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, which warned in a report about the use of the technology that “networks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and evasive, thus challenging government authorities to address new, non-traditional forms of this crime.”

In February, a Mexican prosecutor also confirmed to the AP that they were investigating a network of accounts advertising crossings through a tunnel running under the border fence between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. But investigators would not provide more details.

In the meantime, hundreds of accounts post videos of trucks crossing border, of stacks of cash and migrants, faces covered with emojis, promising they made it safely across the border.

“We’re continuing to cross and we’re not scared,” one wrote.

Illustrations are based on hundreds of videos posted on TikTok examined by the AP that advertise travel to the U.S. to migrants. Videos are often laced with emojis, make bold promises of success and promise safe travel.