Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had been living in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador in March 2025 even though an immigration judge had previously granted him withholding of removal to that country. That protection did not give him permanent resident status, but it did bar the federal government from sending him to El Salvador unless that order was first lifted through further legal process.
\nPublic reporting said he was sent to CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo), El Salvador's maximum-security prison complex, where detainees are held in highly restrictive conditions that human rights groups have strongly criticized.
\nHis wife and attorneys quickly challenged the deportation in federal court. Lower courts ordered the administration to facilitate his return. When the government sought emergency relief, the dispute reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
\nIn April 2025, the Supreme Court left in place an order requiring the administration to \"facilitate\" Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. The justices also noted that the government acknowledged he had been removed to El Salvador despite an order forbidding that removal.
\nThis publication treats the case as a critical legal and human-rights concern because public reporting and court filings describe:
\nOn April 10, 2025, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts in Noem v. Abrego Garcia. The Court held that the district court's order requiring the government to \"facilitate\" Abrego Garcia's return was proper, stating: \"The order properly requires the Government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.\"
\nThe ruling was unanimous -- all nine justices agreed that the government was required to facilitate the return of a person it had illegally deported.
\nIn a concurrence joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, Justice Sotomayor highlighted the extraordinary implications of the government's legal position: \"The Government's argument implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.\"
\nThis argument -- that executive action taken before a court can issue an order is beyond judicial review -- represented a claim of executive power that, if accepted, would have eliminated judicial oversight of deportation and detention entirely. The unanimous Court rejected it.
\nDespite the Supreme Court's April 10 ruling, the administration did not return Abrego Garcia promptly. The district court subsequently found the administration \"failed to comply\" with the Court's order. Abrego Garcia remained in CECOT until June 6, 2025 -- nearly three months after the Supreme Court's unanimous decision -- when he was finally returned to the United States, only to face new criminal charges.
\nThe delay between the Supreme Court's order and the actual return illustrated the broader pattern of the administration treating court orders as suggestions rather than binding commands.
\nHuman rights organizations and reporters have described CECOT as a prison system associated with:
\nA November 2025 report by Human Rights Watch and Cristosal titled \"You Have Arrived in Hell\" documented regular and severe physical abuse, sexual violence, prolonged incommunicado detention, inadequate food, and denial of healthcare at CECOT. Abrego Garcia was held in this facility for approximately 83 days despite a standing judicial order prohibiting his deportation to El Salvador and a Supreme Court order requiring his return.
\nThis publication classifies the Abrego Garcia deportation as a probable violation of international law because:
\nOn March 15, 2025, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime statute rarely used in U.S. history, as part of its campaign against alleged members of Tren de Aragua. The proclamation argued that the gang's activity constituted an \"invasion\" or \"predatory incursion\" within the meaning of the statute.
\nThe administration used that theory to argue it could remove Venezuelan nationals with sharply reduced process. Critics said the policy relied on sweeping accusations of gang affiliation and did not provide individualized hearings before some removals were attempted.
\nRather than returning all deportees to Venezuela, the administration also coordinated transfers to El Salvador under an agreement with President Nayib Bukele's government. Public reporting said some deportees were sent to CECOT, where they were held in a prison system criticized by rights groups for extreme conditions and limited process.
\nThat made the policy unusual even by immigration-law standards: the United States was not just removing people from the country, but in some cases transferring them into a third country's detention system.
\nFederal courts quickly intervened. Some judges issued emergency orders blocking removals or requiring notice and a chance to challenge the government's legal theory before deportation. Other opinions later questioned whether the proclamation described the kind of \"invasion\" that Congress had in mind when it enacted the statute.
\nThe litigation turned on both process and substance: whether the Act can be used outside a conventional wartime setting, and whether the government may rely on it without individualized hearings when the consequence is immediate removal to another country or prison system.
\nJudge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order on March 15, 2025, blocking deportation flights under the Act. Hours later, the administration flew deportees to El Salvador despite the order. In an April 16 ruling spanning 46 pages, Boasberg found \"probable cause\" to hold the government in criminal contempt, writing that the evidence was \"sufficient for the court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt.\" He described the administration's use of the Act as having \"frightening\" implications.
\nAn appeals court later reversed the contempt finding in August 2025, in a 2-1 decision with both judges in the majority being Trump appointees.
\nTrump called for Boasberg's impeachment on Truth Social, labeling him a \"Radical Left Lunatic.\" Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public rebuke, stating: \"For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.\"
\nOn September 3, 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a decisive blow to the administration's legal theory. In a 2-1 ruling, the court blocked the use of the Alien Enemies Act for immigration removals. Judge Leslie Southwick, writing for the majority, rejected the argument that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua constituted an \"invasion\" under the statute, concluding: \"We conclude that the findings do not support that an invasion or a predatory incursion has occurred.\"
\nThe ruling was significant because the Fifth Circuit -- covering Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi -- is widely regarded as one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country. That even this court rejected the administration's legal theory underscored how far the invocation of a wartime statute for immigration enforcement departed from established law.
\nThe Act had previously been used only during declared wars: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. Its use to justify peacetime immigration deportations was unprecedented.
\nThis publication assigns a critical label because the reported conduct raises several unusually serious issues at once:
\nThe historical analogy matters as well: the Alien Enemies Act was previously used during formal wars, including the period that produced Japanese internment. That history does not itself decide the legality of the 2025 proclamation, but it explains why the policy drew immediate scrutiny from civil-liberties advocates, courts, and scholars.
", "citation": "Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to Accelerate Venezuelan Deportations. https://trumpswarcrimes.com/incident/alien-enemies-act-mass-deportations. Published March 15, 2025. Updated September 3, 2025." }, { "slug": "cecot-deportation-torture", "title": "Secret Deportation of 260+ Venezuelans to CECOT Mega-Prison", "url": "https://trumpswarcrimes.com/incident/cecot-deportation-torture", "date": "2025-03-15", "lastUpdated": "2026-03-25", "displayDate": "March 15, 2025", "displayLastUpdated": "March 25, 2026", "summary": "Over 260 Venezuelans were secretly deported to CECOT, where HRW documented torture, sexual violence, prolonged incommunicado detention, and denial of basic necessities. Many deportees had no criminal history and were asylum seekers.", "category": "deportation-to-torture", "categoryLabel": "Deportation to Torture", "severity": "extreme", "severityLabel": "War Crime / Crime Against Humanity", "posture": "reported", "postureLabel": "Reported record", "ongoing": true, "victims": "260+ Venezuelan nationals including asylum seekers with no criminal history, deported to CECOT mega-prison without notice to families or attorneys", "perpetrators": "President Trump, DHS Secretary Noem, ICE, Department of State (for negotiating the transfer agreement with El Salvador)", "structuredVictims": [ { "group": "Venezuelan nationals", "nationality": "Venezuelan", "status": "secretly deported to CECOT mega-prison, subjected to torture", "count": 260 }, { "group": "Venezuelan asylum seekers", "nationality": "Venezuelan", "status": "deported without criminal history" } ], "structuredPerpetrators": [ { "name": "Donald Trump", "role": "President", "institution": "White House" }, { "name": "Marco Rubio", "role": "Secretary of State", "institution": "Department of State" }, { "name": "Kristi Noem", "role": "DHS Secretary", "institution": "Department of Homeland Security" }, { "name": "ICE", "role": "Executing agency", "institution": "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" } ], "legalBasis": "Convention Against Torture Articles 3 and 16 (absolute prohibition on refoulement to torture and cruel treatment), ICCPR Articles 7, 9, and 14 (torture, arbitrary detention, due process), International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, Nelson Mandela Rules", "tags": [ "CECOT", "torture", "non-refoulement", "enforced disappearance", "El Salvador", "Venezuela", "sexual violence", "Convention Against Torture" ], "keyPoints": [ "260+ Venezuelan nationals were secretly deported to CECOT between March and April 2025, without notice to families or attorneys, constituting enforced disappearance under international law.", "HRW's 'You Have Arrived in Hell' report documented regular and severe physical abuse, sexual violence (at least 3 cases including forced oral sex), psychological abuse, and prolonged incommunicado detention.", "Many deportees were asylum seekers with no criminal history, deported to a facility described by a federal judge as 'one of the most notoriously inhumane and dangerous prisons in the world.'", "Transfer to a known torture facility violates the absolute prohibition on refoulement under the Convention Against Torture, which permits no exceptions regardless of national security claims.", "As of March 2026, dozens of deportees remained in CECOT. Some were released via prisoner swap with Venezuela; one Venezuelan filed a $1.3 million damages claim." ], "sourceCount": 6, "documentCount": 2, "updateCount": 0, "warCrimeClassification": "probable", "internationalLaw": [ { "statute": "Convention Against Torture", "article": "Article 3", "provision": "Absolute prohibition on transfer to countries where there is substantial risk of torture (non-refoulement)" }, { "statute": "Convention Against Torture", "article": "Article 16", "provision": "Prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" }, { "statute": "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights", "article": "Article 7", "provision": "Prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" }, { "statute": "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights", "article": "Article 9", "provision": "Right to liberty and security of person; prohibition on arbitrary detention" }, { "statute": "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights", "article": "Article 14", "provision": "Right to due process and fair hearing" }, { "statute": "International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance", "article": "Article 2", "provision": "Prohibition on enforced disappearance, defined as deprivation of liberty with concealment of fate or whereabouts" }, { "statute": "Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture", "article": "Article 3", "provision": "State responsibility for torture committed by public servants" }, { "statute": "UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules)", "article": "Rules 1, 43-46", "provision": "Basic standards for treatment of prisoners including prohibition on indefinite solitary confinement" } ], "iccRelevance": false, "legalAnalyses": [ { "title": "You Have Arrived in Hell: Torture and Other Abuses Against Venezuelans in El Salvador", "url": "https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/11/12/you-have-arrived-in-hell/torture-and-other-abuses-against-venezuelans-in-el", "organization": "Human Rights Watch and Cristosal" }, { "title": "Human Rights Watch Declaration on Prison Conditions in El Salvador (J.G.G. v. Trump)", "url": "https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/20/human-rights-watch-declaration-prison-conditions-el-salvador-jgg-v-trump-case", "organization": "Human Rights Watch" }, { "title": "Tracking the CECOT Disappearances", "url": "https://www.nilc.org/resources/tracking-the-cecot-disappearances/", "organization": "National Immigration Law Center" }, { "title": "Trump Must Be Held Accountable for People Detained in El Salvador's CECOT", "url": "https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/press-release/people-detained-el-salvador-cecot-trump-accountable/", "organization": "American Immigration Council" } ], "description": "The Trump administration secretly deported more than 260 Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison between March and April 2025. Human Rights Watch documented systematic torture including sexual violence in its November 2025 report 'You Have Arrived in Hell.' Deportees were held incommunicado without notice to families or attorneys.", "postureNote": "Multiple individual lawsuits filed. One Venezuelan has filed a $1.3 million damages claim. Some deportees released via prisoner swap with Venezuela. No comprehensive judicial ruling on the legality of the overall program.", "relatedIncidents": [ "alien-enemies-act-mass-deportations", "abrego-garcia-wrongful-deportation" ], "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/11/12/you-have-arrived-in-hell/torture-and-other-abuses-against-venezuelans-in-el", "title": "You Have Arrived in Hell: Torture and Other Abuses Against Venezuelans in El Salvador", "publisher": "Human Rights Watch / Cristosal", "archivedUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/2026/https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/11/12/you-have-arrived-in-hell/torture-and-other-abuses-against-venezuelans-in-el" }, { "url": "https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/20/human-rights-watch-declaration-prison-conditions-el-salvador-jgg-v-trump-case", "title": "Human Rights Watch Declaration on Prison Conditions in El Salvador (J.G.G. v. Trump)", "publisher": "Human Rights Watch", "archivedUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/2026/https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/20/human-rights-watch-declaration-prison-conditions-el-salvador-jgg-v-trump-case" }, { "url": "https://www.nilc.org/resources/tracking-the-cecot-disappearances/", "title": "Tracking the CECOT Disappearances", "publisher": "National Immigration Law Center", "archivedUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/2026/https://www.nilc.org/resources/tracking-the-cecot-disappearances/" }, { "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/03/15/trump-el-salvador-cecot-deportations/", "title": "Deportees sent by Trump to Salvadoran prison are still stuck a year later", "publisher": "The Washington Post", "archivedUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/2026/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/03/15/trump-el-salvador-cecot-deportations/" }, { "url": "https://www.democracynow.org/2025/11/14/cecot", "title": "You Have Arrived in Hell: Report Documents Torture of Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador's CECOT", "publisher": "Democracy Now!", "archivedUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/2026/https://www.democracynow.org/2025/11/14/cecot" }, { "url": "https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/press-release/people-detained-el-salvador-cecot-trump-accountable/", "title": "Trump Must Be Held Accountable for People Detained in El Salvador's CECOT", "publisher": "American Immigration Council", "archivedUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/2026/https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/press-release/people-detained-el-salvador-cecot-trump-accountable/" } ], "documents": [ { "title": "You Have Arrived in Hell: Torture and Other Abuses Against Venezuelans in El Salvador", "url": "https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/11/12/you-have-arrived-in-hell/torture-and-other-abuses-against-venezuelans-in-el", "publisher": "Human Rights Watch / Cristosal", "type": "Investigative report", "date": "2025-11-12", "note": "Comprehensive documentation of torture, sexual violence, incommunicado detention, and inhumane conditions based on interviews with deportees and their families." }, { "title": "Human Rights Watch Declaration on CECOT Conditions (J.G.G. v. Trump)", "url": "https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/20/human-rights-watch-declaration-prison-conditions-el-salvador-jgg-v-trump-case", "publisher": "Human Rights Watch", "type": "Legal declaration", "date": "2025-03-20", "note": "Expert declaration submitted in federal litigation describing conditions at CECOT and risk of torture for deportees." } ], "timeline": [ { "date": "2025-03-15", "title": "First secret deportation flights to CECOT", "summary": "The Trump administration began secretly deporting Venezuelan nationals to CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador. Deportees were transported without notice to their families, attorneys, or the public." }, { "date": "2025-03-20", "title": "HRW files declaration in J.G.G. v. Trump on CECOT conditions", "summary": "Human Rights Watch submitted an expert declaration in federal litigation describing conditions at CECOT, including overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and denial of legal access." }, { "date": "2025-04-30", "title": "Deportation flights to CECOT continue through April", "summary": "Additional flights brought the total number of Venezuelan nationals deported to CECOT to over 260. Deportees included asylum seekers with no criminal history." }, { "date": "2025-11-12", "title": "HRW and Cristosal publish 'You Have Arrived in Hell'", "summary": "The comprehensive report documented systematic torture including sexual violence, regular physical beatings by guards, incommunicado detention, inadequate food, denial of hygiene and sanitation, limited healthcare access, and no recreational or educational activities." }, { "date": "2026-03-15", "title": "Washington Post reports deportees still held a year later", "summary": "Reporting confirmed that dozens of Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration remained in CECOT, some for nearly a year, with no clear legal process for release or return." } ], "updateLog": [], "contentHtml": "Between March and April 2025, the Trump administration secretly deported more than 260 Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador's CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo), a maximum-security mega-prison that has been the subject of extensive international condemnation for its conditions. The deportations were conducted in secret: families were not notified, attorneys were not informed, and the deportees were held incommunicado upon arrival.
\nMany of the deportees were asylum seekers. Some had no criminal history whatsoever. They were not deported to their home country of Venezuela, but rather transferred to a third country's prison system under an arrangement between the Trump administration and the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
\nFederal Judge Paula Xinis, in the related Abrego Garcia case, described CECOT as \"one of the most notoriously inhumane and dangerous prisons in the world\" that \"by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter.\"
\nIn November 2025, Human Rights Watch and the Salvadoran human rights organization Cristosal published a comprehensive investigative report titled \"You Have Arrived in Hell,\" based on extensive interviews with deportees and their families. The report documented:
\nThe title of the report -- \"You Have Arrived in Hell\" -- comes from words reportedly spoken to deportees upon their arrival at CECOT.
\nThe manner of the deportations meets the definition of enforced disappearance under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The deportees were:
\nThe National Immigration Law Center has maintained a tracking project documenting the \"CECOT disappearances,\" reflecting the characterization of these transfers as enforced disappearances under international law.
\nThe Convention Against Torture Article 3 establishes an absolute prohibition on transferring any person to a state where there are substantial grounds for believing they would be in danger of being subjected to torture. This prohibition admits no exceptions -- it applies regardless of national security considerations, criminal history, or immigration status. The non-refoulement obligation under the CAT is widely recognized as a jus cogens norm (a peremptory norm of international law from which no derogation is permitted).
\nThe US government transferred 260+ people to a facility where:
\nThe transfers therefore violated Article 3 not through negligence or failure to assess risk, but with actual or constructive knowledge that torture would occur.
\nEven if any individual act of mistreatment fell short of the legal definition of torture, the conditions documented by HRW -- chronic hunger, denial of sanitation, incommunicado detention, psychological abuse -- collectively constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment prohibited by CAT Article 16 and ICCPR Article 7.
\nThe deportees were transferred to CECOT without:
\nThis violated ICCPR Articles 9 and 14 and the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights.
\nThis incident is classified at extreme severity because:
\n| Statute | \nArticle | \nNature of Violation | \n
|---|---|---|
| Convention Against Torture | \nArt. 3 | \nTransfer to facility where torture was documented and foreseeable | \n
| Convention Against Torture | \nArt. 16 | \nSubjecting deportees to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment | \n
| ICCPR | \nArt. 7 | \nTorture and cruel treatment documented by HRW | \n
| ICCPR | \nArt. 9 | \nArbitrary detention without legal process | \n
| ICCPR | \nArt. 14 | \nDenial of due process and access to legal counsel | \n
| Enforced Disappearance Convention | \nArt. 2 | \nSecret transfer and concealment of whereabouts from families | \n
| Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture | \nArt. 3 | \nState responsibility for torture inflicted on transferred persons | \n
| Nelson Mandela Rules | \nRules 1, 43-46 | \nConditions of detention falling below minimum standards | \n
El Salvador is systematically subjecting Salvadoran nationals deported from the United States to enforced disappearance — immediately detaining them upon arrival, holding them incommunicado, refusing to acknowledge their detention, and denying their existence in the system.
\nHuman Rights Watch interviewed 20 relatives and lawyers of 11 Salvadorans deported from the United States between mid-March and mid-October 2025 who were immediately detained upon arrival. The findings are devastating:
\nOver 9,000 Salvadorans have been deported by the United States since the start of 2025. While not all are subjected to enforced disappearance, the 11 documented cases represent a systematic pattern, not isolated incidents.
\nThe United States bears legal responsibility under the principle of non-refoulement for knowingly deporting individuals to a country where they face enforced disappearance. The administration was aware of conditions in El Salvador — Human Rights Watch had published multiple reports on torture and forced disappearance at CECOT beginning in April 2025.
\nUnder the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, enforced disappearance is defined as \"the arrest, detention, or abduction of persons by agents of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or the fate or whereabouts of the person.\" El Salvador's actions meet this definition precisely.
\nUnder the Rome Statute Article 7(1)(i), enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity when \"committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population.\" Given El Salvador's state of emergency and the thousands detained under it, the \"widespread or systematic\" threshold is likely met.
\nThe US violates its non-refoulement obligations (CAT Article 3) by deporting individuals to a country where there are \"substantial grounds for believing\" they will be subjected to torture or enforced disappearance — particularly after receiving detailed documentation of such practices.
\nIn February 2025, the Trump administration negotiated an unprecedented agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to detain deportees from the United States at CECOT, El Salvador's Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo — a mega-prison that has been widely documented as a site of systematic torture and human rights abuse.
\nOn February 3, 2025, Bukele posted on X offering the United States \"the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.\" Secretary of State Marco Rubio was visiting El Salvador at the time and met with Bukele to finalize the arrangement. Rubio later confirmed that the verbal agreement reached during that visit was formalized in a written agreement — one that has never been publicly released.
\nOn March 16, 2025, Bukele announced the arrival of \"the first 238 members\" of Tren de Aragua from the United States, stating they would be imprisoned at CECOT \"for a period of one year (renewable).\" The following day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that \"approximately $6 million\" had been paid to El Salvador \"for the detention of these foreign terrorists.\"
\nIn March and April 2025, the US transferred over 280 people to CECOT in secret. No notice was given to their families or attorneys. The National Immigrant Justice Center and other organizations characterized this as the US government \"disappearing\" migrants into a foreign prison — with no legal process, no right to counsel, and no ability to challenge their transfer.
\nIn November 2025, Human Rights Watch and Cristosal published \"You Have Arrived in Hell,\" documenting systematic torture of the Venezuelan deportees at CECOT, including sexual violence, regular beatings, inadequate food, poor sanitation, and denial of medical care. HRW concluded these were not isolated incidents but systematic violations designed to subjugate and humiliate detainees.
\nThe CECOT contract raises profound legal concerns:
\nNon-refoulement: The Convention Against Torture (Article 3) absolutely prohibits transferring any person to a state where there are substantial grounds for believing they face torture. Given the well-documented torture at CECOT — documented before the transfers occurred — the US had constructive knowledge that transferees would face torture.
\nState acquiescence in torture: Under CAT Article 1, torture includes acts committed \"with the consent or acquiescence of a public official.\" By paying $6 million to fund detention in a facility where torture is systematic, the US is acquiescing in torture.
\nUnprecedented legal void: There is no US statutory authority for outsourcing federal detention to a foreign state. The arrangement places detainees beyond the reach of US courts, immigration judges, and constitutional protections — creating an extralegal detention regime.
\nDue process: The secret transfers without notice to attorneys or families violate fundamental due process protections under both US and international law.
\n