Trump sent Venezuelans to this Salvadoran prison. Kristi Noem visited them.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the Salvadoran mega-prison where the U.S. has sent hundreds of Venezuelans, accusing them of ties to gangs.
Noem’s three-day trip around the Americas began at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, more commonly known as CECOT.
Inside sweltering concrete cell blocks, Noem and Salvadoran justice minister Gustavo Villatoro toured the Central American nation’s largest prison, which can house up to 40,000 people with little access to the outside world. CECOT has become a flashpoint along President Donald Trump’s path to expel millions of migrants from the U.S. Trump also threatened to send people who vandalize Teslas to CECOT.
In mid-March, the administration flew 261 Venezuelans to El Salvador. Officials alleged they were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. As Paste BN and other news outlets have reported, families, lawyers and advocates deny many of the men had any affiliation to the gang, which the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist group.
The deportations to CECOT, Noem said Wednesday on the social media site X, “sent a message to the world that America is no longer a safe haven for violent criminals.”
In the post, she also reiterated that the men are gang members, though the administration has not provided any evidence to support that claim, and called prisoners "the worst of the worst."
Edited videos released by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally who once called himself the “world’s coolest dictator,” depict faceless guards herding shackled men inside CECOT. The prison has become notorious for images of masses of shirtless, bald men covered in tattoos held in crowded cells as part of Bukele’s crackdown on gangs.
On Wednesday afternoon, Noem, sporting a blue Immigration and Customs Enforcement baseball cap, walked through cell 8, where some suspected Tren de Aragua members were being held behind bars.
Officials and reporters were separated from incarcerated men by a yellow line on the ground. Prison guards, donning helmets and holding batons, stood on the line between men who stood silent and wide-eyed.
During the tour, Villatoro singled out one man to Noem. The minister pointed to the man's star-shaped tattoo, which he said is a marker of Tren de Aragua.
U.S. officials have cited tattoos as membership of Tren de Aragua. However, unlike Salvadoran gangs — including those housed at CECOT — tattoos do not necessarily signify membership in the Venezuelan gang, said Rebecca Hanson, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, who recently authored a book on violence and policing in Venezuela.
In another cell, Noem visited a unit of Salvadoran men who have been in CECOT since it opened in 2023. All wore medical face masks. Men stay in their cells all day, aside from brief exercise breaks or to visit the prison clinic. They eat in their cells and use toilets, directly in public view.
Reporters had no opportunities to ask questions.
Bukele opened the prison to the U.S. for a cost of around $6 million to house deported Venezuelans. After her trip to CECOT, Noem planned to meet with Bukele.
“As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime,” Bukele said on X after the first American planes arrived. “But this time, we are also helping our allies.”
The prison doesn't allow visitations or outdoor recreation. It’s located at the base of a volcano in a rural region southeast of the capital San Salvador.
CECOT is the centerpiece of Bukele’s anti-crime campaign that he credits with historic drops in homicides in El Salvador — from one of the highest homicide rates in the world to one of the lowest in the Americas. Human rights watchers have warned of widespread abuses in prisons and incarcerating people without due process.
On Thursday, Noem is scheduled to visit Colombia, where she will meet with President Gustavo Petro and senior officials. In late January, Petro issued fiery tweets after American military planes brought Colombian migrants in chains. Then Trump threatened tariffs. Petro instead encouraged undocumented Colombians to return home from the U.S.
Noem and President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo are set to meet in Mexico on Friday. To avert many of Trump’s tariffs, Sheinbaum Pardo has sought to meet Trump’s demands around drug trafficking and migration.
However, American trading partners face more tariffs, which Trump has promised will start on April 2.
Josh Meyer of Paste BN contributed to this report.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)