Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday toured a maximum security prison in El Salvador where Venezuelans who had been removed from the U.S. without a judicial hearing are being confined.
“If you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face,” Noem said a in video inside El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), standing in front of a cell full on prisoners.
“This facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Attorneys for and family members of some of the men have claimed they aren’t gang members, but were nevertheless nabbed because of tattoos that authorities falsely deemed gang-related.
Under an agreement reached last month, the U.S. is paying $6 million annually for the Central American country to take in detained migrants.
Lawyers the Venezuelan government hired to represent 30 individuals petitioned El Salvador’s Supreme Court for their release, arguing, “There is no legal basis for their detentions.”
Noem made no mention of the controversy surrounding the many deportations.
The former South Dakota governor, who has recently played a firefighter, a coast guard pilot, and has strapped on a vest for Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, this time went with a blue ICE baseball hat.
Noem said earlier this month that the government will spend $200 million on ads to try to convince undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S. and to discourage would-be migrants from entering illegally.
