Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said illegal migrants the Trump administration sent to El Salvador’s notorious mega prison should be locked up there “for the rest of their lives,” according to Axios.
The Trump administration has deported more than 200 suspected gangbangers to El Salvador’s brutal Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) using the 18th Century Alien Enemies act, which allows migrants to be removed from the US without a trial.
“We’re confident that people that are [imprisoned in El Salvador] should be there, and they should stay there for the rest of their lives,” Noem said after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement event Wednesday.
The administration was forced to quickly halt the migrant flights to El Salvador after a federal judge’s order.
The Supreme Court subsequently allowed the Trump administration to restart the effort in a ruling issued this week.
Noem told The Post Tuesday after getting the green light, the Trump administration is prepared to send tens of thousands of additional criminal migrants to CECOT.
“You’ll see us continuing to partner with El Salvador. CECOT has the capacity for 40,000 individuals, and [El Salvador President Nayib Bukele] has said they’ll take as many as we want to send,” Noem said after joining an ICE raid in Phoenix, where three convicted felon migrants were busted.
“There’s 14,000 there now, and he said he plans to build another prison right next to it.”
Critics have said the Trump administration’s system for determining migrants’ alleged ties to Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua and MS-13 is faulty and only based on minimal factors, such as possible gang tattoos.
Trump’s ‘border czar’ Tom Homan recently told Axios that ICE agents are the “principal” deciders to determine an illegal migrants’ gang affiliation.
“I’ve talked to the highest level at ICE and they’ve reassured me several times: Everyone that was removed under the Alien Enemies Act was a gang member and a terrorist.”