Kristi Noem Uses El Salvador's Nightmarish Megaprison To Create Content
The Homeland Security secretary's use of El Salvador's largest prison for propaganda is unethical and an endorsement of an autocratic justice system.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited one of the Western Hemisphere's most brutal prisons yesterday for a typical reason: to create some social media content.
Noem arrived yesterday at El Salvador's Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), a megaprison that human rights groups say is overcrowded and deadly, where no one ever leaves alive. Earlier this month, the Trump administration summarily deported over 150 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a violent Venezuelan gang, and sent them to CECOT under an agreement with El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele.
Noem posted a video to X of her standing in front of a cell of tattooed, grim-faced CECOT inmates, where she warned that the prison was one possible destination for those who enter the U.S. illegally.
I toured the CECOT, El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center.
President Trump and I have a clear message to criminal illegal aliens: LEAVE NOW.
If you do not leave, we will hunt you down, arrest you, and you could end up in this El Salvadorian prison. pic.twitter.com/OItDqNsFxM
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) March 26, 2025
"I'm here at CECOT today visiting this facility," Noem said. "And, first of all, I want to thank El Salvador and their president for their partnership with the United States of America to bring our terrorists here and to incarcerate them and have consequences for the violence they have perpetuated in our communities. I also want everyone to know, if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face. First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed, and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people."
The photo-op was a hit among the Trump administration's target audience. Fox News breathlessly reported that Noem came "face-to-face with alleged Tren de Aragua members."
However, the Trump administration has refused to provide evidence that those deportees had actual gang ties, and media reports have found numerous cases of Venezuelans sent to CECOT who appear to be anything but the hardened "terrorists" and "heinous monsters" described by government officials. Mother Jones reported that federal investigators are relying on tattoos to identify suspected Tren de Aragua members, but in many cases those tattoos are completely innocuous. For example, Mother Jones detailed the case of Neri Alvarado Borges, a Venezuelan who worked at a Dallas bakery but was allegedly detained for his three tattoos, one of which was an autism awareness ribbon in honor of his brother.
The Miami Herald reported on the case of a Venezuelan man who was granted legal refugee status in the United States. However, he was detained on arrival and sent to CECOT because of his three tattoos: a crown, a soccer ball, and a palm tree.
The wife of another deported Venezuelan man recognized him in a propaganda video released by the White House showing new CECOT prisoners being held down by guards and having their heads shaved. She recognized him by the hummingbird tattoo on his neck, which she said symbolized "harmony and good energy."
The other issue is that Noem is exploiting these prisoners for propaganda, a hallmark of illiberal regimes. Not only that, but she's using prisoners of an authoritarian crackdown that's antithetical to due process and the U.S. Constitution.
In a recent lawsuit on behalf of several deported Venezuelans, Human Rights Watch filed a declaration on the conditions inside CECOT.
"People held in CECOT, as well as in other prisons in El Salvador, are denied communication with their relatives and lawyers, and only appear before courts in online hearings, often in groups of several hundred detainees at the same time," Juanita Goebertus, the director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, wrote in the declaration. "The Salvadoran government has described people held in CECOT as 'terrorists,' and has said that they 'will never leave.' Human Rights Watch is not aware of any detainees who have been released from that prison."
In 2022, in response to rampant gang violence that had made his country the murder capital of the word, Bukele declared a 30-day state of emergency and suspended constitutional due process, allowing mass arrests of thousands of suspected gang members without judicial review. That monthlong "state of emergency" is now in its third year and has been renewed 33 times.
Accurate numbers are hard to come by because the Bukele administration has undermined El Salvador's public information laws and systematically harasses independent reporters, but human rights groups estimate that the country has imprisoned over 80,000 people since 2022. About half or more of them are held in CECOT.
Goebertus' declaration says Human Rights Watch has documented "cases of torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention, severe violations of due process and inhumane conditions, such as lack of access to adequate healthcare and food."
In a 2023 report, Amnesty International also documented cases of deaths due to beatings, torture, and medical neglect in El Salvador's prisons. Local organizations have confirmed over 300 deaths in state custody, but groups believe that's an undercount.
In the meantime, the highly popular Bukele consolidated power. He stacked the country's high court with loyalists, overrode a constitutional ban on running for reelection, and cruised to victory, buoyed by plummeting crime rates and a powerful state media apparatus.
In a press release, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, called the agreement to ship certain deportees to El Salvador a "dangerous endorsement of President Bukele's punitive security agenda."
Bukele's autocratic crackdown has attracted wide-eyed praise and wonder from many MAGA conservatives, but as a practical matter it wouldn't be feasible in a country as large as the U.S., and as a constitutional matter it would be illegal.
Noem's photo-op is not only an unethical use of incarcerated people for propaganda, it also reflects an appreciation for a style of strongman justice that is abhorrent to the core of the American project.
