This page is part of a resource collection on Authoritarianism & Bigotry in the Second Trump Administration.
Image: The notorious El Salvadorian CECOT Prison & torture site, run by dictator Nayib Bukele. The Trump administration “deported” hundreds of migrants to CECOT, with no due process. Image from Ruth Ben Ghiat’s Bukele’s Bodies: Authoritarian Aesthetics and Transnational Repression.
Deporting Migrants to Guantánamo
February 9. Silvia Foster-Frau: Why lawyers worry migrants sent to Guantánamo are in a ‘legal black hole’. The Trump administration has released scant information on the migrants sent to the U.S. detention facility in Cuba. Human rights lawyers are demanding they be allowed access to legal counsel.
March 14. The Wall Street Journal: The Unraveling of Trump’s Plan to Detain Thousands of Migrants at Guantanamo: The U.S. military has started making plans to draw down personnel deployed to the naval base in the coming weeks.
June 11. John Hudson and Alex Horton: Trump to ramp up transfers to Guantánamo, including citizens of allies.
June 24. Sacha Pfeiffer: Trump said he wants to send 30,000 immigrants to Gitmo. It’s ready for a few hundred.
Deporting Migrants to Warzones
May 7. The Washington Post: Judge warns Trump administration against Libya deportations
May 7. Kate Bartlett: Trump administration plans to deport migrants to Libya.
May 21. ABC News: Judge rules DHS violated court order in deporting 8 migrants to South Sudan.
May 26. The New York Times: What to Know About the Deportees the U.S. Is Trying to Send to South Sudan.
June 1. NPR: The White House is deporting people to countries they’re not from. Why?
July 3. Ann E. Marimow: Supreme Court clears deportations to conflict-ridden South Sudan The move clears the way for the deportation of eight men being held in a detention center at a U.S. naval base in East Africa to conflict-ridden South Sudan.
July 5. Mattathias Schwartz: U.S. Turns Eight Migrants Over to South Sudan, Ending Weeks of Legal Limbo. Courts blocked the handover after lawyers raised concerns of torture. Then the Supreme Court intervened to allow the Trump administration’s plan to move forward.
Deporting Migrants to Brutal El Salvadorian Prisons
March 22. The Washington Post: They were arrested during routine ICE check-ins. Then they disappeared. Deportation proceedings are often shrouded in secrecy. But lawyers say the lack of information about the Venezuelan migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act is nearly unprecedented.
March 26. Noah Lanard & Isabela Dias: “You’re Here Because of Your Tattoos”: The Trump administration sent Venezuelans to El Salvador’s most infamous prison. Their families are looking for answers.
March 28. Will Carless & Rick Jervis: FBI and DHS question using tattoos to accurately ID Venezuelan criminal gangs:”Tattoos are typically related to the Venezuelan culture and not a definite [indicator] of being a member or associate of the” TdA, reads a 2023 “Situational Awareness” bulletin.
April 3. Nikki McCann Ramírez: The ‘Judicial Black Hole’ of El Salvador’s Prisons Is a Warning for Americans: President Nayib Bukele used a crackdown against criminals as cover to erode institutions and destroy civil rights. The parallels to Trump are undeniable.
April 25. Nick Penzenstadler and Will Carless: Exclusive: DOJ memo offers blueprint to Tren de Aragua deportation plan.
April 30. Noah Lanard And Isabela Dias: “A Mockery of Due Process”: The Men Who Could Be Sent to El Salvador Next.
May 4. The Washington Post: Trump’s 48-hour scramble to fly migrants to a Salvadoran prison The administration rounded up some of the Venezuelans two days before the flights took off, pressing forward even as Venezuela agreed to accept deportees.
June 1. Manuel Rueda: Months after deportation, dozens of Venezuelan migrants are still locked inside a Salvadoran prison.
July 22. Mississippi Free Press: Venezuela Investigating Mistreatment of Migrants Trump Sent to El Salvador.
July 27. Sergio Martínez-Beltrán & Manuel Rueda: ‘Hell on Earth’: Venezuelans deported to El Salvador mega-prison tell of brutal abuse.
July 29. Melissa Sanchez: He Was Asked About His Tattoos and a TikTok Video in Court. Five Days Later, He Was in a Salvadoran Prison.
July 30. ProPublica: Now That They’re Free:Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration say they endured months of physical and mental abuse inside a Salvadoran prison. Though happy to be home, they say the fact that they were released is proof of how senseless their detentions were.
July 31. The Washington Post: ‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants.
Jerce Reyes Barrios
March 20. Armando Garcia: Man deported to El Salvador under Alien Enemies Act because of soccer logo tattoo.
July 25. Armando Garcia: Soccer coach who says he was deported over his tattoo celebrates his release from CECOT.
August 2. Jessica Schulberg & Matt Shuham: Pro Soccer Player Sent To El Salvador Over Tattoo Details ‘Hell On Earth’ At CECOT.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia
April 14. Franco Ordoñez, Danielle Kurtzleben: El Salvador’s Bukele says ‘preposterous’ to suggest he return Abrego Garcia to U.S.
April 15. NPR: The risk Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case poses for citizens, according to legal scholar.
April 17. Associated Press: Maryland senator meets Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador amid battle over US return.
April 18. Chris Stein: Kilmar Abrego García ‘traumatized’ by threats in prison, Maryland senator says: Chris Van Hollen describes meeting with constituent held in Salvadorian prison against supreme court order.
May 8. Associated Press: Trump administration invokes state secrets privilege in Kilmar Ábrego García case: Lawyers say they’re ‘still in dark’ about government’s efforts to free the man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.
May 24. Samantha Schmidt: As a boy in El Salvador, Abrego García feared gangs, avoided recruitment: Abrego García studied alongside gang members. But he showed “very good conduct,” according to his school.
June 30. Steve Thompson: Kilmar Abrego García’s lawyers describe ‘severe beatings’ in El Salvador prison. In a court filing, the Salvadoran migrant’s attorneys say he was repeatedly struck and held in a crowded, windowless cell that was brightly lit around the clock.
July 2. Alan Feuer: Abrego Garcia Was Beaten and Tortured in El Salvador Prison, Lawyers Say. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was made to kneel overnight, denied bathroom access and confined in an overcrowded cell with bright lights and no windows, his lawyers say.
July 23. CBS News: Judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from criminal custody, second judge bars ICE from immediately detaining him.
August 23. Jazmine Ulloa: A Muted Homecoming for Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Mr. Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, is keeping a low profile as his lawyers prepare to fight the Trump administration’s proposal to deport him to Uganda.
August 23. Maria Sacchetti & Jeremy Roebuck: Kilmar Abrego García’s lawyers say threat to deport him to Uganda is coercion:The undocumented immigrant’s legal team contends the Trump administration is trying to force him to plead guilty or face deportation to an African nation where crime and terror threats abound.
August 25. Sergio Martínez-Beltrán: Kilmar Abrego Garcia detained by ICE during Baltimore check-in.
August 25. The Washington Post: Judge temporarily bars Kilmar Abrego García’s deportation to Uganda.
August 26. Moira Donegan: The case against Kilmar Ábrego García is a study in sadistic absurdity.
August 28. Devan Cole: Abrego Garcia’s attorneys ask judge overseeing his trial for gag order on Trump administration officials.
August 30. Ben Finley: What to know about Abrego Garcia’s asylum claim. Experts say it’s a smart but risky legal move.
Andry Hernandez Romero
April 1. Tom Phillips and Clavel Rangel: ‘He is not a gang member’: outrage as US deports makeup artist to El Salvador prison for crown tattoos: Andry José Hernández Romero sent to an El Salvador prison after claim ‘crown’ tattoos proved he was a gang member.
April 6. CBS: Trump administration deports gay makeup artist to prison in El Salvador.
April 7. Sara Dorn: Photo Shows Deported Gay Makeup Artist Andry Hernandez Romero Pleading With Guards At El Salvador’s CECOT.
August 4. Clavel Rangel: ‘We have to clear our names’: Venezuelan makeup artist who survived Ice detention tries to rebuild his life.
July 24. Christopher Wiggins: Makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero describes horrific sexual & physical abuse at CECOT in El Salvador.
August 17. Christopher Wiggins: Andry Hernández Romero on surviving CECOT: ‘They told us we would die there.’
Arturo Suárez
April 4. Efrain Otero: Family of Venezuelan singer jailed in El Salvador call for due process.
April 20. Tom Phillips: ‘I just ask God that he’s OK’: family of Venezuelan musician sent to El Salvador prison agonizes over his fate.
July 29. Tom Phillips & Clavel Rangel: ‘Cemetery of the living dead’: Venezuelans recall 125 days in notorious El Salvador prison.