At least 50 migrants sent to El Salvador prison entered US legally, report finds
At least 50 Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a prison in El Salvador had entered the United States legally, according to a review by the Cato Institute.
The report, published by the libertarian thinktank on Monday, analyzed the available immigration data for only a portion of the men who were deported to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), and focuses on the cases where records could be found.
'The government calls them all 'illegal aliens.' But of the 90 cases where the method of crossing is known, 50 men report that they came legally to the United States, with advanced US government permission, at an official border crossing point,' Cato said in its report.
This number aligns with broader trends among Venezuelan migrants, many of whom entered the country either as refugees or through a Biden-era parole program that granted two-year work permits to those with US-based sponsors.
'The proportion isn't what matters the most: the astounding absolute numbers are,' reads the report. 'Dozens of legal immigrants were stripped of their status and imprisoned in El Salvador.'
Cato's analysis goes against the Trump administration's justification for sending the men to El Salvador, saying that only undocumented people were deported.
The report says that 21 men were admitted after presenting themselves at a port of entry, 24 were granted parole, four were resettled as refugees, and one entered the US on a tourist visa.
The Trump administration deported more than 200 alleged gang members to the Cecot mega-prison in March, controversially invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law meant only to be used in wartime, as justification. The Cecot prison is known for its harsh conditions, and lawyers for Venezuelan deportees have alleged that the migrants being held there are victims of physical and emotional 'torture'.
Sign up to Headlines US
Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning
after newsletter promotion
The deportations have since drawn widespread scrutiny. To date, the Trump administration has not released complete records for the more than 200 Venezuelans transferred to El Salvador. Cato's review includes information for 174 men whose cases have some degree of public documentation.
The Trump administration has accused many of the deported Venezuelan men of gang involvement, but in many cases, those claims appear to hinge largely on their tattoos.
Many of the tattoos cited as evidence have no connection to gang activity. The markings reflect, in many cases, personal or cultural references.
Cato uses the example of Andry José Hernández Romero, a makeup artist, who has crown tattoos on his arms that reference the Three Kings Day celebrations in his Venezuelan hometown.
The report comes amid a sprawling crackdown on immigrants in the US. On Monday, the supreme court ruled that the Trump administration could proceed with efforts to revoke temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans. Ending TPS, which protects foreign citizens who cannot return home because of war, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances, could open up approximately 350,000 people for potential deportation.
Agencies contributed reporting
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
Associated Press seeks full appeals court hearing on access to Trump administration events
The Associated Press on Tuesday asked for a hearing before the full U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, seeking to overturn a three-judge panel's ruling that allowed the Trump administration to continue blocking AP access to some presidential events — a four-month case that has raised questions about what level of journalistic access to the presidency the First Amendment permits. Three judges of that court on Friday, in a 2-1 decision, said it was OK for Trump to continue keeping AP journalists out of Oval Office or other small events out in retaliation over the news outlet's decision not to follow his lead in changing the Gulf of Mexico's name. He had sought a pause of a lower court's ruling in AP's favor in April that the administration was improperly punishing the news organization for the content of its speech. 'The decision of the appellate panel to pause the district court's order allows the White House to discriminate and retaliate over words it does not like, a violation of the First Amendment,' AP spokesman Patrick Maks said. 'We are seeking a rehearing of this decision by the full appellate court because an essential American principle is at stake.' A hearing before the full court would change the landscape — and possibly the outcome as well. The two judges who ruled in Trump's favor on Friday had been appointed to the bench by him. The full court consists of nine members appointed by Democratic presidents, and six by Republicans. The news outlet's access to events in the Oval Office and Air Force One was cut back starting in February after the AP said it would continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico in its copy, while noting Trump's wishes that it instead be renamed the Gulf of America. For decades, a reporter and photographer for the AP — a 179-year-old wire service whose material is sent to thousands of news outlets across the world and carried on its own website, reaching billions of people — had been part of a small-group 'pool' that covers a president in places where space is limited. Now, an AP photographer routinely gets access to these events, while text reporters rarely do. ___ David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at and
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
Stephen Miller meeting with ICE officials was the spark for LA protests and National Guard call-up: report
White House aide Stephen Miller has repeatedly branded the Los Angeles protests an 'insurrection' after fierce backlash to immigration raids. California 's leadership is now 'siding with insurrectionist mobs,' and Democratic officials are 'in open rebellion' against the government, according to Miller. But the far-right architect of Donald Trump's anti-immigration agenda appears to have himself lit the fuse, after reportedly rallying Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to 'just go out there and arrest illegal aliens.' Late last month, Miller pressed ICE officials to ramp up arrests after following short of the president's ambitions for record-breaking daily deportations, according to The Wall Street Journal. Federal law enforcement officers needed to 'just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,' Miller told top ICE officials, according to WSJ, citing people familiar with the meeting. Rather than develop a list of targets for arrest, Miller told agents to raid Home Depot parking lots and 7-Eleven convenience stores, the newspaper reported. Miller 'eviscerated everyone,' according to recent reporting from The Washington Examiner. ''You guys aren't doing a good job. You're horrible leaders,'' Miller reportedly said. 'He just ripped into everybody. He had nothing positive to say about anybody, shot morale down,' an official told the outlet. Miller also allegedly bet that he and a handful of agents could arrest 30 people in the streets of Washington, D.C. 'Who here thinks they can do it?' Miller reportedly said. Days later, on June 6, ICE agents descended on a Home Depot in the predominantly Latino Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles — kicking off a weekend of protests centered around a federal detention center in the city's downtown and in the nearby Paramount and Compton neighborhoods. The next morning, Border Patrol agents gathered in a gated industrial office park in Paramount, while word spread on social media that raids were imminent at another nearby Home Depot. Trump later signed a presidential memorandum deploying 'at least' 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, with U.S. Marines standing by, despite objections from Governor Gavin Newsom, who joined officials and other critics sounding the alarm that the administration is needlessly escalating unrest. Miller and Newsom have spent several days trading blows over X. In response to Newsom's renewed lawsuit calling on a federal judge to block the 'unnecessary militarization' of Los Angeles, Miller accused the governor of saying that ICE officers must withdraw from the state if they 'don't want to get assaulted or worse by insurrectionist migrant mobs.' 'The Governor's position is that Stephen Miller has no peer when it comes to creating bulls****, strawmen arguments,' Newsom's office replied. The Independent has requested comment from the White House. Miller — who is from nearby Santa Monica — routinely characterizes the city and greater Los Angeles area as a 'third-world nation' overrun by immigrants. 'A ruptured, balkanized society of strangers,' he said this week. 'Los Angeles is all the proof you need that mass migration unravels societies,' Miller said. 'You can have all the other plans and budgets you want. If you don't fix migration, then nothing else can be fixed — or saved.' In recent days, he has repeatedly accused state officials of criminal activity for supporting immigrant communities, claiming that the entire state has 'aided, abetted and conspired to facilitate the invasion of the United States' and is now supporting a 'violent rebellion' against the federal government. 'Los Angeles and California are demanding the nullification of the election results, of federal law, of national sovereignty, and of the bedrock constitutional command of one national government,' Miller said. Trump appointed Miller as a senior policy adviser during his first term, where he emerged as an influential driving force behind the several key policies, including a ban on travel to the United States from majority Muslim countries and a 'zero tolerance' policy to separate migrant children from their parents or guardians. After an election fueled by Trump's pledge for the 'largest deportation operation in American history,' Miller has become a fierce proponent of the administration's agenda in media interviews and in volatile confrontations with reporters as the president advances a more robust anti-immigration campaign. Miller has also endorsed the concept of 'remigration,' or forcible removal of immigrants and their families that has taken hold among Europe's far-right parties and
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump ally's support for raising the federal minimum wage could set up a wild showdown with the administration
Top Republican threw his support behind raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2026 - and it could spark a showdown with President Trump. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and has not been raised since 2009. Hawley's proposal, called the 'Higher Wages for American Workers Act' is also cosponsored by Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt). 'For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline,' Hawley (R-Mo.) told CBS News. 'One major culprit of this is the failure of the federal minimum wage to keep up with the economic reality facing hard-working Americans every day. This bipartisan legislation would ensure that workers across America benefit from higher wages,'the Missouri senator added. Trump has teased lukewarm ideas about potentially raising the federal minimum wage, acknowledging it's 'pretty low' currently. But he's generally favored a state-led approach to the issue rather than stepping in on a federal level. On the campaign trail last year, Trump championed proposals such as eliminating taxes on tips, as well as on overtime wages. Those campaign promises are presently one step closer to becoming policy realities, as they are provisions included in the budget reconciliation package which passed the U.S. House of Representatives before Memorial Day. It's unclear if Hawley has discussed his legislation with the White House and whether Trump is supportive. The Daily Mail has reached out to his team for comment. Ten states, as well as Washington, D.C., have a minimum wage of over $15. Democrat-led California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington also have the high pay level. Twenty states set their minimum wage at the $7.25 level, 19 of which supported President Donald Trump's reelection last year. In Hawley's home state of Missouri, voters passed a measure last November to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2026. It included provision passed by voters that would also institute annual raises to keep minimum wage increases on pace with inflation was later struck down by the Missouri legislature this spring. Hawley's proposal is not the only one in the Senate aimed at raising the federal minimum wage. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation in April to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour by 2030. At the time, Sanders argued that 'the $7.25 an hour minimum wage is a starvation wage. It must be raised to a living wage – at least $17 an hour.' 'In the year 2025, a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, we can no longer tolerate millions of workers trying to survive on just $10 or $12 an hour. Congress can no longer ignore the needs of the working class of this country. The time to act is now,' Sanders noted in an April press release. Republicans including President Trump are pushing to increase the dollars Americans bring home in their pockets via other methods. Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked about raising the federal minimum wage at his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year. At the time, Bessent said that he believes 'that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue' when answering a question posed by Senator Sanders. The libertarian Cato Institute, a D.C. think tank noted in a 2022 policy guide for lawmakers that 'very few studies find that minimum wages boost employment and that a significant minority find no to small employment effects.
