SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR – El Salvador’s anti-crime strategy became the latest tool in U.S. President Trump’s crackdown on immigration, reports AP News when hundreds of immigrants facing deportation were transferred to a mega-prison in mid-March.
AP News wrote El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s harsh prisons are a trademark for the nation’s fight against crime, and the arrival of the immigrants are under an agreement with the Trump Administration that will pay Bukele $6 million for one year of services.
In 2023, Bukele opened the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, where “immigrants were sent over the weekend even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring their deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members,” according to AP News.
The mega-prison, located in Tecoluca, began construction in March 2022 and can hold up to 40,000 inmates, stated AP News, noting CECOT prisoners don’t receive visits, are not allowed outdoors, and are not offered workshops or educational programs to integrate them into society after their sentences.
AP News reported that prisoners trusted by prison officials can give motivational talks, where other inmates have to sit in rows to watch under the supervision of guards. Bukele’s justice minister stated those held at CECOT would never return to their communities, added AP News.
Cristosal, a human rights organization, reported that, in March 2024, El Salvador had 110,000 people behind bars, which is more than double the 36,000 inmates the government reported a year before Bukele’s fight against crime, wrote AP News.
AP News notes the report states Cristosal has accused authorities of human rights violations such as abuse, torture, and lack of medical attention, and noted that at least 261 people have died in El Salvador’s prisons.
AP reported the immigrants were sent to CECOT after Trump’s declaration of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which requires the president to declare the U.S. is at war, granting him “extraordinary powers to detain or remove foreigners who otherwise would have protections under immigration or criminal laws.”
Trump claimed the Tren de Aragua gang—originating from an infamously lawless prison in Venezuela which accompanied the exodus of millions of Venezuelans seeking better lives—was invading the U.S, stated AP, adding no evidence was reported by the Trump administration that members of Tren de Aragua committed any crimes in the U.S.
AP writes video evidence released by El Salvador’s government shows men, with their hands and ankles shackled, exiting airplanes lined by officers in riot gear. Officers pushed their heads down to have them bend at the waist.
The video shows the men being transported to CECOT in large, guarded buses, reports AP News, adding men were also shown changing into their uniforms and getting their heads shaved.
Hundreds of “criminal” immigrants were deported in which a vast majority of the country agrees with Trump’s actions.
Without due process, there is no way to be certain they are criminals and it is proven that they have sent people by mistake.
Even the Trump administration has admitted errors occurred – https://www.npr.org/2025/04/01/nx-s1-5347427/maryland-el-salvador-error
What I haven’t read anywhere is why those deported from the US end up in prison in El Salvador. Wouldn’t they just be released as citizens, except those who had committed crimes in El Salvador? Is this a ‘deportation-to-prison’ pipeline?’.
“AP News reported that prisoners trusted by prison officials can give motivational talks, where other inmates have to sit in rows to watch under the supervision of guards.”
I thought this was an odd factoid that didn’t seem to fit the article. Do the ‘trusted prisoners’ give motivational talks about how ‘you, too, can give motivational talks about giving motivational talks’.