The White House steadfastly defended its decision to proceed with multiple deportation flights over the weekend, despite an order to pause by a federal judge.

(CNN) — The Trump administration has sparked controversy with its move Sunday to deport 261 people, some of whom it alleges are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, to an infamous maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

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.