US Homeland Security Secretary visits infamous prison housing deported gang members

Kristi Noem, US Homeland Security Secretary, arrived in El Salvador on Wednesday to tour the infamous Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a prison known for its harsh conditions and housing gang members deported by the Trump administration. She is expected to request that El Salvador’s president make room for more deportees.

Noem, 53, visited the facility where 250 suspected members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 were recently transferred from the US under President Trump’s orders. They joined 15,000 inmates already held in the CECOT prison, which is notorious for its extreme conditions designed as a deterrent in El Salvador’s ongoing war on gang violence.

Inside the notorious CECOT prison

During her tour, Noem observed rows of heavily tattooed inmates standing silently in their packed cells. She also got a close look at the prison’s arsenal of weapons, including assault rifles, used by guards to maintain order.

“No one expects that these people can go back to society and behave,” said Gustavo Villatoro, El Salvador’s minister of justice and public security, as he guided Noem through the sweltering barracks, according to a press pool report.

Many of the prisoners Noem saw were among those Trump deported earlier this month. Like the rest of the inmates, they stood in silence, dressed in white T-shirts and shorts.

True to her nickname, ICE Barbie, Noem wore her signature flowing hair beneath an Immigration and Customs Enforcement baseball cap as she moved through the facility.

Talks on expanding deportations

Following the tour, Noem is set to meet with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to discuss increasing the number of US deportees sent to CECOT, according to Fox News.

Her visit to El Salvador marks the first stop in a three-day tour of Latin America to address organized crime spilling over into the US. She is scheduled to visit Colombia next, followed by Mexico, where she will meet with the leaders of both nations.

“We are in several other countries around the world with a message right now that’s saying if you are thinking of coming to America illegally, don’t do it. You are not welcome,” she said Monday.

Legal battle over Trump’s deportation policy

Noem’s visit comes amid legal challenges against Trump’s deportations to CECOT, which he authorized under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. The act, which dates back to an 18th-century naval conflict, allows the president to deport non-citizens without trial. It was last invoked during World War II to detain Japanese and German Americans in internment camps.

Since Trump declared Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization in January, he has used the act to deport its suspected members. However, a federal judge quickly blocked the order, placing a 14-day hold on its enforcement.

Despite the ruling, the White House proceeded with the deportations, arguing that since the flights were already in the air and over international waters, the court order did not apply.

As Noem arrived in El Salvador, a federal appeals court upheld the block in a 2-1 vote.

“Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here,” Judge Patricia Millett remarked during the hearing.

Trump has vowed to challenge the ruling in court.

CECOT’s extreme conditions

The agreement to house Tren de Aragua deportees at CECOT was reached in February between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bukele. According to Rubio, El Salvador is charging the US a “relatively low” fee for the arrangement, though specific divs have not been disclosed.

CECOT, located 47 miles south of San Salvador, was opened in 2023 as part of Bukele’s aggressive crackdown on organized crime.

Inmates spend 23.5 hours a day inside cells that hold up to 70 people, where they eat, bathe, and use the restroom. Meals consist of beans and pasta, and prisoners share communal basins for drinking and bathing. Their bunks—metal beds stacked four levels high—lack mattresses, sheets, or pillows.

Prisoners are allowed out of their cells for only 30 minutes of indoor exercise. Unlike in most prisons, CECOT inmates never see the sun.

Most prisoners are serving life sentences, and CECOT prison director Belarmino Garcia has described them as “psychopaths who will be difficult to rehabilitate.”

During Noem’s tour, she was shown one inmate serving 465 years for homicide and terrorism.

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