El Salvador to expand US deportees prison, echoing Washington's agenda

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Wall Street Journal
17 Apr 2025 07:19

Trump ordered the prison's expansion—denounced as a "tropical gulag"—after vowing to send what he perceives as American offenders there.

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President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, left, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Pool via AP)

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele plans to significantly expand the country’s controversial mega-prison, CECOT, which is already detaining deportees from the US, according to a new report.

During a meeting last month with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Bukele reportedly laid out his intention to expand the facility, which has been condemned by human rights organizations as a “tropical gulag” plagued by systemic abuse, The Wall Street Journal revealed on Wednesday.

The prison, which currently has the capacity to hold 40,000 people, recently began housing hundreds of deported immigrants, including individuals the Trump administration claims—without conclusive evidence—are linked to a Venezuelan gang.

Among the detainees is a Salvadoran father, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported and detained despite a US court order allowing him to remain in the country. Judges have ruled his removal defies legal precedent and court rulings.

“We have no plans to bring them back, this is a long-term solution,” Noem told the Journal following her March visit with Bukele. She confirmed Bukele intends to double the facility’s size, saying, “He has 80-plus acres there that he’s going to continue to build on.”

Wider context

This development follows closely on the heels of President Donald Trump inquiring about expanding El Salvador’s prison facilities. Trump recently reiterated threats to deport US citizens who break the law to prisons abroad, such as CECOT.

When asked that same day whether he would release Abrego Garcia—who was sent to CECOT after being accused without evidence of MS-13 ties—Bukele firmly rejected the idea.

“Of course” he would not allow the Maryland father to return to the US, he said. Despite admitting Garcia was wrongfully deported due to an administrative mistake, the Trump administration has resisted efforts to repatriate him, even as the US Supreme Court and lower courts have ruled that his removal was illegal and demanded his return.

The Supreme Court recently instructed the Trump administration to “facilitate” Garcia’s return, echoing a prior decision from a federal judge who described his detention as “wholly lawless” and a “grievous error". A federal appeals court similarly found the government lacked “legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process.”

Still, administration lawyers argue that the Supreme Court’s directive allows for Garcia’s return only if Salvadoran authorities decide to send him back—something Bukele has made clear won’t happen. “The question is preposterous,” Bukele said while seated next to Trump. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Reports indicate the Trump administration is paying El Salvador $6 million to detain deportees like Garcia, fueling concern that the US has leverage over the detainees' fates.

On Wednesday, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to CECOT to press for Garcia’s release but was denied access to visit or speak with him. Meanwhile, Maryland District Judge Paula Xinis has ordered Trump officials to testify under oath about their compliance with the Supreme Court ruling. “There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” she warned.

That same day, another federal judge, James E. Boasberg, stated that officials in the Trump administration could face criminal contempt charges for “willful disregard” of his orders to return deported Venezuelan men. The judge said he may refer the case for prosecution if the government fails to act by next week.

Secretary Noem, meanwhile, faced backlash after releasing a video filmed in front of a packed prison cell, where she warned viewers, "If you enter the US illegally, you could wind up in this prison".