How one photojournalist documented US deportees' arrival in El Salvador

More than 250 alleged gang members, many of whom were Venezuelan, were deported from the U.S and flown to a prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration on March 15. Photojournalist Philip Holsinger documented their arrival, telling ABC News about capturing the images for Time magazine.

"I don't think they were ready for what they saw," Holsinger said. "It's a major military operation where they bring the police and the military together for security purposes and surround the planes. And to put these guys, it takes about 22 buses for this amount of people to transport them to their supermax prison."

The administration acknowledged that many of the detainees have no criminal history in the U.S., and lawyers for at least five of them filed declarations stating they have never been gang members.

Holsinger said on Monday that he was struck by the detainees' appearances, having previously seen "hardened criminals" during prison transfers.

"By the end of the night, there was nobody that was defiant," he said "I mean, the whole process of the intake is so aggressive -- for security reasons, you know, the security forces will tell you -- but it's still, it's very forceful."

According to Holsinger, the detainees arrived in the Central American nation on commercial charter flights rather than military aircraft, so there was no way to chain anyone to a seat.

"They are shackled in a, you know, a typical shackling of ankles, wrists, and then connected by one chain," Holsinger said. "And you know, they're guarded by special operations from Homeland Security that's on the plane."

On Monday, U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett of the District of Columbia Circuit criticized the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport the men without due process.

"Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemy Act," Millett said during a court hearing. "People weren't given notice. They weren't told where they were going. Those people on those plans on that Saturday had no opportunity to file habeas [corpus] or any type of action to challenge the removal."

Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign argued that President Donald Trump was exercising core presidential powers by deporting Venezuelans whom the administration accused of being violent gang members without providing evidence.

The administration also criticized U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for attempting to reverse the deportation flights, alleging that he overstepped his authority.