Washington DC - Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Sunday interview that it was her decision to continue deportation flights to El Salvador earlier this year in spite of a court order.

Noem was asked on NBC's Meet the Press whether it was her call to continue the flights.

"The decisions that are made on deportations – where flights go and when they go – are my decision at the Department of Homeland Security, and we will continue to do the right thing and ensure that dangerous criminals are removed," Noem told host Kristen Welker.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of Venezuelan nationals without due process.

US District Judge James Boasberg in March gave an oral order calling for the return of more than 100 detained Venezuelans to the US. He issued a written order the same day blocking the federal government from removing people under the Alien Enemies Act.

That did not stop the Trump administration from sending the Venezuelan men to the notorious CECOT megaprison in El Salvador.

Asked whether she defied the court's order in continuing the flights, Noem said "no," without elaborating.

A report released earlier this month found that the Venezuelan nationals deported by the US suffered arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, inhumane detention conditions, and sexual violence during their time in El Salvador.

The men were finally released and transferred to Venezuela over the summer.

Boasberg has launched an inquiry which could open the door to contempt charges against Noem, who continues to dismiss accusations of wrongdoing.

"That's one of the things that we continue to face across this country is activist judges who are using radical decisions that have no standing and no grounds to try to stop what President Trump is doing," she claimed.

"We'll continue to do the right thing, continue to work and to protect Americans, no matter what radical judge comes out and tries to stop us."