Second-Term Mass Deportations: Largest Enforcement Operation in U.S. History

Overview

The administration launched what it called the largest deportation operation in American history. The enforcement included individuals with no criminal records, people with valid court orders protecting them from removal, and in documented cases, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents detained in error.

The deportees went to CECOT — a maximum-security Salvadoran prison documented by human rights organizations as a site of torture and inhumane conditions.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

In 2019, a U.S. immigration judge issued an order specifically withholding Kilmar Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador based on a credible fear of persecution. U.S. courts create these orders when they find that a person faces genuine danger in their country of origin.

On March 15, 2025, the Trump administration deported him to CECOT anyway, acknowledging it was an "administrative error" but refusing to bring him back despite a federal court order requiring them to do so.

The administration's position was that it could not be required by a court to return someone it had wrongly deported to a foreign prison.

The Documented Errors

U.S. citizens detained by ICE during enforcement operations is not an abstraction — it happened, it was documented, and in some cases the people involved were detained for days while their status was verified. In at least two documented cases, U.S. citizens were deported before the error was caught.

CECOT

CECOT — the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo — is documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and international observers as a facility where due process does not exist, conditions are inhumane, and detainees have reported torture. The Trump administration negotiated a deal with El Salvador to house deportees there.