Gang members deported to El Salvador prison

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(by Isabel Keane, Chris Nesi, NY Post) – …The US has flown more than 250 accused migrant gang members to El Salvador, where they were sent to [the country’s] mega-prison — in direct defiance of a federal judge’s ruling against the Trump administration.

The flights included 238 members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, as well as least 21 members of MS-13, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele revealed Sunday morning.

Upon landing in El Salvador, the accused men were met on the tarmac by dozens of armed commandos and immediately transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), according to video posted by Bukele.

The deportations came just hours after US District Judge James Boasberg [in response to a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights advocates, including the ACLU and Democracy Forward] temporarily blocked the Trump administration from invoking the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to swiftly boot the gangbangers from the country without a formal hearing.

Two flights to El Salvador were in the air when the order came down, and the Trump administration [noted] the ruling did not apply because the planes were “outside US airspace,” Axios reported.

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 53, met with Bukele, 43, and brokered a deal in which the El Salvadoran leader agreed to house convicted US citizens or deported criminal illegal migrants of any nationality into the country’s most infamous clink. …..

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, praised the administration’s latest round of deportations in a post on X Sunday morning.

“Last night, 238 Tren de Aragua members along with 21 MS13 gang members, were deported from this country adding to the thousands of criminal aliens already deported,” he wrote. “Under President Trump’s leadership, this country is becoming safer every day.”

Bukele gave a slightly larger total of 23 MS-13 members who were housed in El Salvador, including two ringleaders. He posted on X March 16, 2025:

Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable).

The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us.

Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable. As of today, it costs $200 million per year.

On this occasion, the U.S. has also sent us 23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice, including two ringleaders. One of them is a member of the criminal organization’s highest structure.

This will help us finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors.

As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime. But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place. All in a single action.

May God bless El Salvador, and may God bless the United States

…During an emergency hearing Saturday morning, Boasberg ordered the administration to halt all migrant removals made invoking the 1789 Alien Enemies act … [And he actually ordered that those plane be turned around mid-flight].

“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States however that is accomplished,” Boasberg wrote, according to the Washington Post. “Make sure it’s complied with immediately.”

The ruling slapped a 14-day restraining order on the use of the act, which the administration plans to use to deport any illegal migrant it identifies as a member of a gang.

Trump signed a presidential order in January designating Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, clearing a path for immigration officials to start rounding up its members for removal.

Since taking office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has made over 32,000 arrests — 70% of them either facing charges or convicted of crimes, senior agency officials said last week.

Of those nabbed by Trump’s ICE, 14,000 are convicted criminals, 10,000 have pending criminal charges and 8,700 do not have criminal records in the US, ICE officials told reporters.

ICE would not confirm how many illegal migrants have been deported so far.

Published at NYPost .com on March 16. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

Questions

NOTE: Before answering the questions, read the “Background” and watch the videos under “Resources.”

1. The first paragraph of a news article should answer the questions who, what, where and when. List the who, what, where and when of this news item. (NOTE: The remainder of a news article provides details on the why and/or how.)

2. What gangs do the 238 deported under the Alien Enemies Act belong to?

3. How is El Salvador’s CECOT prison different from regular prisons?

4. a) What law did the Trump administration use to deport the criminal gang members who are in the U.S. illegally?
b) How did a judge respond to a challenge to the deportations?
c) How did the Trump administration explain the continuation of the 2 flights of deported gang members?

5. Reacting to Judge Boasberg’s ruling blocking the Trump administration from deporting these gang members, reader responses include:

“And the question should be, why is a judge trying to protect terrorists who have invaded our country over American citizens?”
“Why not send the Tren de Aragua gang members back to Venezuela [which is run by anti-American dictator Nicholas Maduro]? Because there is a good chance they would escape and be right back here.”
“The [Alien Enemies Act] law is on the books. Amongst its provisions, that enemy aliens do not have civil rights. The law has been previously applied. The executive has made the required declarations and is enforcing the law. This ‘ruling’ is flagrant partisanship.”

a) What do you think about the deportations?
b) Ask a parent the same question.

Background

The Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) is a maximum security prison located El Salvador. It was built in late 2022 amidst a large-scale gang crackdown in El Salvador by President Nayib Bukele and opened by the Salvadoran government in January 2023. Politicians across Latin America in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and Peru have implemented or have called for security policies similar to those implemented by Bukele.

The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua:

While in Venezuelan prisons, Tren de Aragua gang leaders ordered robberies, kidnappings and murders from behind bars.
In recent years, the gang infiltrated the U.S.
Besides a wave of robberies, human trafficking and other crimes, Tren de Aragua is suspected in the shooting of two New York Police officers and the killing of a former Venezuelan police officer in Florida.
The murderers of Georgia nursing student Lakin Riley and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray from Texas have been identified as Tren de Aragua gang members.
TdA members have been arrested in Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, Texas and California.
Last year, the Biden administration labeled Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization, and in January, the U.S. government designated the Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.

The effect of President Bukele’s crackdown on gangs and crime in El Salvador:

President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs in El Salvador, launched in March 2022 with the declaration of a state of emergency, has significantly altered the country’s security landscape. This aggressive campaign, coupled with the opening of the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in January 2023, has been credited with sharply reducing violence and improving public safety…

CECOT plays a pivotal role in this shift. By housing thousands of gang members — 14,532 as of mid-2024 — in a facility where communication with the outside is forbidden, it has crippled the command structures of groups like MS-13 and Barrio 18. Bukele has emphasized that this isolation prevents inmates from ordering crimes, a claim supported by the drastic reduction in gang-driven violence. The prison’s harsh conditions — minimal amenities for inmates, with facilities like dining halls and gyms reserved for guards — reinforce its deterrent effect.

Public sentiment reflects these changes. Polls show Bukele’s approval rating consistently above 80%, with many Salvadorans attributing the safety gains to his policies. For decades, gangs extorted, killed, and terrorized with impunity, making daily life unbearable for many. Now, people in former gang-controlled areas express relief at being able to walk at night or visit neighboring communities without fear of death.

The crackdown in 2022 began in response to a violent weekend that saw 87 homicides, prompting Bukele to suspend certain constitutional rights under a “state of exception.” This allowed security forces to arrest suspects without warrants, detain them indefinitely without charges, and bypass traditional due process. [Many of those arrested were] transferred to CECOT, a maximum-security prison designed to hold up to 40,000 inmates. This facility isolates prisoners from the outside world, cutting off their ability to coordinate criminal activities from within, a key factor in disrupting gang operations.

The impact on safety has been stark. In 2022, El Salvador recorded 496 homicides, a 56.8% drop from 1,147 in 2021, according to the Minister of Defense. By 2023, the homicide rate fell further to 2.4 per 100,000 people — one of the lowest in the Americas — down from a peak of 105 per 100,000 in 2015, when the country was dubbed the “murder capital of the world.” Communities once paralyzed by gang control report tangible improvements: extortion payments have largely ceased, residents can move freely without fear of reprisal, and businesses operate without the constant threat of violence. In places like San Salvador’s historic center, previously a gang stronghold, vendors and residents describe a newfound sense of normalcy, with children playing in streets that were once battlegrounds.

(from an AI Grok search “how has bukele’s crackdown on gangs in el salvadore and the opening of cecot improved safety in el salvador”