Bukele’s notorious maximum-security facility has become a cornerstone of the U.S. president’s deportation strategy
The Trump administration has deported 17 more alleged gang members to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday.Here’s what to know:
What happened
The group was made up of “violent criminals” who were members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and El Salvador’s MS-13 gangs, Rubio wrote on X, describing them as “murderers and rapists.” The Pentagon described the operation as a “successful counterterrorism mission.”El Salvador President Nayib Bukele touted the “joint military operation” between the two countries in a video set to cinematic music, showing the deportees being forcefully taken off the plane and transported to the maximum-security prison, where their heads were shaved and they were locked in cells.
The background
This is the second time the government has sent Venezuelans who it claims are members of the violent street gang to the sprawling prison built by Bukele as part of his crackdown on the country’s gangs. Built to house 40,000 inmates, it is considered the largest prison in the world, and approximately 15,000 accused Salvadoran gang members were being held there before the U.S. deportees arrived.In early March, the U.S. sent a group of 261 individuals, which included 137 Venezuelans. The deportations were carried out under an 18th-century law known as the Alien Enemies Act, which authorizes the removal of people from a country at war with the U.S. without a hearing. In invoking the act, President Trump said the gang, known to U.S. law enforcement as TdA, had invaded the U.S. and was wreaking havoc.
The second group, who were flown to El Salvador from the prison complex in Guantanamo Bay on Sunday night, had all received deportation orders, meaning they had received at least some chance to plead their cases. The government isn’t making use of the Alien Enemies act while a court case over the legality of its actions proceeds, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an interview.
The significance
The move signaled that the Trump administration is doubling down on its hard-line strategy of sending U.S. deportees to the Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot, turning it into one of the cornerstones of its deportation efforts.Trump officials have suggested that the deportations to El Salvador’s prison are meant to increase pressure on Venezuela to accept deportation flights of its citizens.
“The Maduro regime was not taking their people back,” Rubio told reporters on the plane returning from a two-day visit to the Caribbean last week. “And so we had to send some to El Salvador because of that.”
It appeared to have worked. The Venezuelan government began accepting deportation flights again last week, with high-level officials greeting deportees at the airport. “Migration isn’t a crime, and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all of those in need and rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador,” the government said in a statement.
