U.S. HOMELAND SECRETARY VISITS EL SALVADOR HIGH SECURITY PRISON- Noem toured the CECOT with the El Salvador Minister of Justice
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in El Salvador to visit a mega-prison holding the Venezuelans deported by the U.S.
Noem toured the facilities of the “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT) at Tecoluca along with El Salvador Minister of Justice and Public Security, Gustavo Villatoro Funes.
The Salvadoran mega-prison is in the public eye after president Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act on March 15 to swiftly deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, attempting to speed up removals with a law best known for its use to intern Japanese, Italian and German immigrants during World War Two.
A U.S. District Judge temporarily blocked the Alien Enemies Act deportations later that day following a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union. But the Trump administration allowed two planes already in the air to continue to El Salvador, where the U.S. handed 238 Venezuelan men over to Salvadoran authorities to be placed in the country’s high-security prison, CECOT.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele touted the arrival of the deportations flights on March 15 by posting a dramatic video on the social media site X showing men hustled off of planes and sent to the mega-prison.
The Salvadoran president, who styles himself as the world’s “coolest dictator,” offered in February to jail “dangerous criminals” deported from the U.S., as well as American citizens.
