New Delhi: Those deported under US President Donald Trump’s controversial new immigration strategy now have a new address—the notorious CECOT mega-jail in El Salvador, which was started by Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele who calls himself the ‘world’s coolest dictator’.
Over the weekend, hundreds of migrants—some allegedly affiliated with criminal gangs—landed in El Salvador’s brutal prison system, despite a US federal judge putting the deportations on hold. According to Bukele, the deportees included 238 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 members, including two top leaders, of MS-13, a Salvadorean criminal organisation.
The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for the deportations. The law, invoked only three times in US history, grants the government extraordinary powers to detain or remove foreigners deemed a threat during wartime. However, the Trump administration has not provided evidence that the deportees were involved in criminal activity in the US.
The deportations were part of a broader agreement between Bukele and the US government. On X, the Salvadorean president said as he said it was “helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place”.
Oopsie…
Too late 😂 pic.twitter.com/nDHL6deLJq
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 16, 2025
In response, Trump said, “We will not forget!”
Visuals shared by the Salvadoran government later showed deportees tied up and processed into CECOT. They were shaved, dressed in prison uniforms, and placed in overcrowded cells.
Watch CutTheClutter: Can the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 empower Trump to deport ‘illegal’ immigrants
The infamous prison
El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) is situated in Tecoluca, 74km southeast of the capital San Salvador and was opened in January 2023.
Miguel Sarre, a former member of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, has called it a “concrete and steel pit” designed to “dispose of people without formally imposing the death penalty”.
At the heart of El Salvador’s harsh prison system, prisoners at CECOT experience severe dehumanisation, spending up to 23.5 hours a day in cramped, overcrowded cells, with little to no access to basic human rights like medical care or visitations. Many of the prison’s rules violate international prisoner rights guidelines.
According to reports, it has 256 cells and is designed to house up to 40,000 inmates, with 156 prisoners in each cell. According to the BBC’s calculations, each cell measures around 91.02 square metres, which, at full capacity, would provide just 0.58 sq m of space per inmate. The International Red Cross recommends 3.4 sq m per prisoner in shared cells.
The cells lack windows, fans, or air conditioning, despite the region’s warm temperatures and high humidity all year round.
The prison is also heavily secured with advanced entry scanning, a vast surveillance system, and a weapons room. The 57-acre complex includes 8 blocks, each with 32 cells and is surrounded by two electrified mesh fences, two reinforced concrete walls, and 19 watchtowers, with a perimeter stretching a little more than 2 km, according to the BBC.
The government has said it does not expect any inmates to ever be rehabilitated.
The prison is part of the government’s “iron fist” approach to crime under Bukele, who came to power in 2019. In 2022, the president announced a state of emergency, suspending constitutional rights in El Salvador, allowing the government to bypass due process in its crackdown on gang violence.
As a result, according to the Associated Press, the prison population has more than doubled from 36,000 inmates in 2021 to over 110,000 in 2024.
However, the prison system had already been under strain for a long time, with overcrowding and inadequate resources. The decision to send hundreds of deported migrants to facilities like CECOT is likely to exacerbate this pressure.
A political deal
For both the US and the Salvadorean president, however, the deportations present an opportunity. For the US, it allows the country to bypass the political and logistical challenges of handling deportees at home.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration paid El Salvador $6 million to cover the cost of keeping these deportees in El Salvador’s notoriously overburdened prison system.
This, in addition to the “production” generated by the prison’s inmates “under the Zero Idleness programme, will help make our prison system self-sustainable. As of today, it costs $200 million per year”, Bukele said on X.
It also adds to Bukele’s political capital, bolstering his image as tough on crime. “This will help us finalise intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors,” he added.
Bukele, who calls himself the ‘world’s coolest dictator’, is also positioning himself as a key regional ally to the US and Trump.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appreciated Bukele for “volunteering” to take in the deported migrants, and said that he had proven “he is not only the strongest security leader in our region but also a great friend of the United States”.
The Venezuelan government, however, in a statement Sunday, said it the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act was reminiscent of “the darkest chapters in human history, from slavery to the atrocities of Nazi concentration camps”.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
Also Read: Why Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest is a rare case in US history
“Some allegedly affiliated with criminal gangs”? Seriously, Ms. Debdutta Chakraborty?
Your affection and concern for these dreaded gangsters is touching indeed. Why don’t you offer Mr. Trump to take them in and house them at your home? Of course, at a price which covers the associated costs.
President Trump and Bukele must be commended for coming up with an innovative solution to this issue. The Tren De Aragua and MS13 must be exterminated completely.