March 26 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem left for El Salvador Wednesday to tour the prison where hundreds of deportees were sent by the Trump administration. Noem is scheduled to tour the Terrorist Confinement Center, or CECOT, the facility with Salvadoran Minister of Justice Gustavo Villatoro before she meets with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. She is then scheduled to visit Colombia Thursday and Mexico Friday.
“I will be in El Salvador seeing firsthand the detention center where the worst-of-the-worst criminals are housed,” she posted to X Monday.
“I look forward to meeting with El Salvadorian President [Bukele] to discuss how we can increase the number of deportation flights,
The Trump Administration had alleged 238 men sent there were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and had them deported to El Salvador on March 15 under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, where they were then sent to CECOT for imprisonment.
However, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order that same day, which both blocked the deportation for 14 days and denied the government’s ability to invoke the Alien Enemies Act in order to deport any immigrants.
The order also directed the government to comply immediately, which meant any planes that may have already left were to turn around and return.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration completed flights that carried the migrants to El Salvador. Bukele then said that they “were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year,” which he added could be extended.
Once it was publicized by the media that flights had been ordered to turn around but did not, Bukele posted to X “Oopsie,” and “Too late,” with a laughing emoji.
The restraining order from Boasberg remains in effect.