Under a sweeping deportation policy by the Trump administration, at least 50 Venezuelan men who had legally entered the United States were deported to El Salvador’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), according to a new report by the Cato Institute.

The libertarian think tank reviewed immigration data for a portion of the deportees and found that many had entered the US with prior authorization through official border crossings.

Although the US government categorized them as “illegal aliens,” the Cato report analyzed 90 cases where entry methods were documented and found that 50 of the men had legal entry, challenging the Trump administration’s narrative that all deported migrants were undocumented and emphasizing that lawful status was revoked in numerous cases before deportation.

Among the documented cases, 21 men were processed at official ports of entry, 24 received parole status, four entered through the US refugee resettlement program, and one was admitted on a valid tourist visa. Many were then transferred to Cecot, a facility internationally criticized for harsh conditions, including reported physical and psychological abuse.

Lawyers representing the deported Venezuelans have documented patterns of physical and psychological abuse inside Cecot, describing treatment that aligns with the legal definition of torture and raising, through the Cato Institute’s findings, serious concerns about the legality of revoking legal status and the ethical implications of placing lawfully admitted migrants in such detention conditions.

In March, the Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime-era law from 1798, to deport over 200 Venezuelan men to Cecot. The law had never been used in this context before, and the administration has not yet released complete documentation for the deportees, creating a lack of transparency.

The Cato review could only examine 174 cases with partial records, revealing inconsistencies and a pattern of misidentification. Authorities often claimed gang affiliations based on tattoos, though many were shown to be personal or cultural, lacking any links to organized crime.

One such case is Andry José Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan makeup artist whose tattoos of crowns, tied to Three Kings Day celebrations, were mistaken for gang symbols.

The report comes amid a broader US immigration crackdown, as the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration can proceed with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans. The decision puts around 350,000 people at risk of deportation despite ongoing instability in Venezuela.

Supreme Court clears Trump to end Venezuelan TPS

The US Supreme Court's May 19 ruling supported the Trump administration's effort to end Temporary Protected Status for around 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, removing the legal protections that had shielded them from potential deportation, according to the decision.

The Supreme Court issued an unsigned order following its standard emergency procedures, siding with the Department of Justice while only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson publicly dissented, delivering a legal win for the Trump administration as it pursued its long-stated goal of mass deportations for undocumented immigrants.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the top Democrat on the House Immigration Subcommittee, criticized the ruling as "shameful," arguing the Trump administration was stripping legal protections from Venezuelans who fled what she considered a catastrophe and entered the US through proper channels.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz slammed the ruling, saying Venezuelan TPS holders fled what she called a "murderous dictator" and built US lives, calling the move "atrocious" and vowing to continue pushing her Venezuela TPS Act, declaring, "This fight is NOT over."