With Donald Trump’s administration facing fierce criticism for deporting planes full of migrants from the US without normal due process, Rubio defended the policy.

“These are some really bad people” Rubio said during a trip to Guyana, where he faced more questions about whether those deported to El Salvador, Venezuela and elsewhere were actually gang members.

“Tren de Aragua is one of the most dangerous gangs the world has ever seen,” he said, referring to a group that has grown from Venezuelan prisons to become a thousands-strong transnational crime syndicate.

“When they were held temporarily in Guantanamo” Rubio said, “the marines at Guantanamo said that ‘these are some of the roughest people we have ever interacted with, they were worse than the Al Qaeda guys that were in their jails’.”

“Think about that. We are getting rid of them and want to get rid of more of them” Rubio added.

Al Qaeda was responsible for the deaths of some 2,977 people in the US on Sept 11, 2001 alone.

The group and its affiliates have also launched decades-long bombing campaigns around the world – often targeting civilians – and fought bloody insurgencies from Somalia to Afghanistan.

The Tren de Aragua operates across Latin America and in the US, where it was recently declared a terrorist organisation by Trump.

Some lower US courts have ruled that Trump’s summary deportation of Venezuelan migrants – under an obscure 1798 wartime law – must be paused.

The relatives of several men transported from the US to a notorious El Salvador jail have said their loved ones were not involved in the gang, and were targeted because they have tattoos.

Rubio insisted Thursday that the group had been well vetted by the department of homeland security, rather than his department, and that he had confidence in their work.