Under a controversial immigration directive from former U.S. President Donald Trump, deported migrants are now being sent to El Salvador’s high-security CECOT prison. This facility, often linked to harsh detention conditions, recently received hundreds of deportees, some accused of gang ties, despite a U.S. federal judge’s attempt to halt the deportations.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele confirmed that among the deported individuals were 238 members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and 23 from the Salvadorean MS-13 gang, including two high-ranking leaders.
The White House disclosed that the U.S. allocated approximately $6 million to cover the costs of detaining these gang members in El Salvador. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the move, stating it was more cost-efficient than keeping them in U.S. prisons.
Trump’s administration justified the deportations by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a rarely used law that grants broad authority to expel foreign nationals during wartime.
This policy aligns with a U.S.-El Salvador agreement that Bukele described as a strategy to support allies, strengthen his country’s prison system, and enhance security intelligence.
CECOT, located 74 km from San Salvador, opened in January 2023 and is designed to hold 40,000 inmates. However, human rights advocates, including former UN anti-torture official Miguel Sarre, have condemned the prison’s extreme conditions. Detainees endure overcrowding, inadequate medical care, and severe restrictions on basic rights. At full capacity, inmates receive less than 0.58 square meters of space—far below the international recommendation of 3.4 square meters. With no rehabilitation programs in place, critics argue CECOT is built solely for punishment rather than reform.
