Top Department of Homeland Security officials want Congress to close a loophole that they say leads to the release of scores of undocumented immigrants into the interior of the United States. An 18-year-old court order requires that all undocumented immigrants from El Salvador appear before a judge before deportation, while people from other countries typically are removed without a hearing. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the injunction, issued while El Salvador was involved in a bloody civil war, has resulted in a logjam of cases that increase detention time and take up valuable space in federal prisons. "The civil war is gone. There is a democratically elected government now," Chertoff said. "We need to be free of this court order." .