Tag Archives: El Salvador

Latin Times: Salvadoran Prison Chief Overseeing Trump Deportees Has Been Sanctioned By The U.S. For Negotiating With Gangs: Report

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A top Salvadoran official in charge of overseeing the country’s prisons, including the infamous CECOT where hundreds of Venezuelans have been sent by the Trump administration, is also sanctioned by the U.S. for secretly negotiating with gangs, a new report claims.

The official in question is Osiris Luna, described by the Wall Street Journal as instrumental to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on crime and gang violence.

Luna, however, has been sanctioned for engaging in negotiations with powerful gang leaders in the country. The pact would see reduced homicides and political backing for Bukele in exchange for better treatment for incarcerated leaders. The outlet said they ended up receiving cellphones, access to sex workers and other privileges, according to an indictment from U.S. prosecutors.

Bukele and Luna have denied the allegations, but a gang member recently revealed that Bukele himself has been involved in such negotiations.

Salvadoran Prison Chief Overseeing Trump Deportees Has Been Sanctioned By The U.S. For Negotiating With Gangs: Report
Osiris Luna, El Salvador’s prison director, has been reportedly sanctioned by the U.S. for secretly negotiating with gangs

https://www.latintimes.com/salvadoran-prison-chief-overseeing-trump-deportees-has-been-sanctioned-us-negotiating-gangs-583691

Reuters: US judge orders Trump administration to facilitate return of Guatemalan deported

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A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there, after officials acknlowledged an error in his case.

US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued the order days after the Justice Department notified him that its claim that the man had expressly stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information.

The Justice Department said last week that upon further investigation, officials were unable to identify any Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who had asked the man, identified as “OCG” about fears he had for his safety.

…

According to his lawyers, OCG is a gay man who fled Guatemala in 2024 after facing death threats based on his sexuality.

He entered the United States through Mexico in May 2024.

Murphy said that while an immigration judge in February found OCG deserved protection from being returned to Guatemala, authorities two days later wrongly placed him on a bus to Mexico, where he had recently been raped and kidnapped.

US judge orders Trump administration to facilitate return of Guatemalan deported
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there, after of…

https://nypost.com/2025/05/24/us-news/us-federal-judge-brian-murphy-orders-trump-administration-to-facilitate-return-of-guatemalan-migrant

The Hill: Vance: Courts trying to ‘literally overturn the will of the American people’

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Vice-President J.D. [“Dunce”] Vance waded into the tug-of-war between the courts and executive branch in an interview published earlier this week, warning that the courts should pull back or risk stepping on the will of the American people.

How simple can I make this, Bubba?

The Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the courts exist to protect the rights and due process of our people from mob rule. Our rights are inalienable. The will of the people is irrelevant in this context.

How the hell did you ever pass high school civics, let alone earn a law degree? Your apparent stupidity is mindboggling.

Vance: Courts trying to ‘literally overturn the will of the American people’

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5315703-vance-judiciary-immigration-voters

CBS News: Top Gabbard aide under scrutiny for emails showing push to edit intel assessment

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President Trump’s nominee to head the National Counterterrorism Center is under fresh scrutiny as emails show he pressed senior intelligence analysts to amend an assessment of links between the Venezuelan government and the criminal gang, Tren de Aragua, known as TDA, to align the assessment more closely with Trump administration policies and to include references critical of Biden-era immigration programs.

The nominee, Joe Kent, is just being a good sycophant, sucking up to the bosses and giving them what they want to hear.

Counterterrorism nominee Joe Kent under scrutiny as emails show he pushed for edits to intelligence assessment
Emails show Kent pressed senior intelligence analysts to amend assessment of links between Venezuelan government and Tren de Aragua gang.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/counterterrorism-nominee-joe-kent-emails-edits-intelligence-assessment

Latin Times: Mexican President Welcomes Tax Cut On Remittances For Migrants, Vows to Keep Fighting

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Trump’s proposed 5% tax on remittances was lowered to just 3.5% by the Senate, Sheinbaum said

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that the U.S. lowered its proposed tax on remittances from 5% to 3.5%, but that officials will continue working to lower it further.

During her daily press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum welcomed a move by U.S. lawmakers to reduce the proposed tax rate to 3.5%, but said she would keep pushing for its full elimination. She argued that the tax would harm not just Mexico, but many countries in the region and beyond.

The tax is a total disgrace. It mostly will hurt poor poeple / lower income earners in the U.S. who are trying to help even poorer members of their families overseas. This tax will be paid on top of the income and social security taxes that have already been paid on the amounts being remitted.

Mexican President Welcomes Tax Cut On Remittances For Migrants, Vows to Keep Fighting
In 2024, Mexico received a record $64.7 billion in remittances, accounting for nearly 4% of its gross domestic product, according to the country’s central bank

https://www.latintimes.com/mexican-president-welcomes-tax-cut-remittances-migrants-vows-keep-fighting-583665

LGBTQ Nation: Cruel Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem says it’s not her problem if a gay hairdresser she sent to a prison camp is dead

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She sent people to languish in the prison known for torturing inmates. Now she says how they’re treated isn’t her “jurisdiction.”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) confronted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem about the administration sending a gay man to a prison camp in El Salvador and not even knowing if he’s still alive. [Bimbo #2] Noem said that it wasn’t her problem.

[Bimbo #2] Noem, who has bragged in the past about shooting her dog to death, appeared before the House Homeland Security Committee for a hearing yesterday, where Garcia asked her about Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay hair dresser from Venezuela who came to the U.S. legally to escape anti-LGBTQ+ violence and who was sent to the CECOT camp in El Salvador, which is known for torturing inmates, earlier this year.

The administration, which sent immigrants to the CECOT without letting courts determine if they were in the country illegally or if they had committed any crimes, has refused to try to bring anyone back from the camp.

“Would you commit to just letting his mother know – as a mother-to-mother – if Andry is alive?” Garcia asked [Bimbo #2] Noem. “He was given an asylum appointment by the United States government. We gave him an appointment, we said, Andry, come to the border at this time and claim asylum, he was taken to a foreign prison in El Salvador.”

“His mother just wants to know if he’s alive. Can we check and do a wellness check on him?”

[Bimbo #2] Noem said she doesn’t “know the specifics” of Hernandez Romero’s case but said that since he’s in El Salvador, Garcia should be asking El Salvador’s government about him.

“This isn’t under my jurisdiction,” [Bimbo #2] Noem said.

Garcia reminded her that she said that the Salvadoran prison is a “tool in our toolkit” for fighting crime.

“You and the president have the ability to check that Andry is alive and not being harmed,” he said. “Would you commit into at least looking and asking El Salvador if he is alive?”

“This is a question that is best asked to the president and the government of El Salvador,” [Bimbo #2] Noem responded drily.

Hernandez Romero is a Venezuelan immigrant who trekked to the U.S. and entered legally last year at San Diego. There, he asked for asylum, saying that he was being targeted in Venezuela for being gay and due to his political beliefs. He was held in a CoreCivic detention center, where he was screened by Charles Cross Jr.

“The government had found that his threats against him were credible and that he had a real probability of winning an asylum claim,” his lawyer, Lindsay Toczylowski, said.

In March, he, along with over 200 other immigrants, was taken in shackles to the CECOT camp in El Salvador. Even his lawyer said she didn’t know what happened to him until he was gone and missed a hearing in his immigration case.

In a video from the CECOT, Hernandez Romero could be heard saying, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist,” as he was slapped and had his head shaved.

“We have grave concerns about whether he can survive,” Toczylowski told CBS News.

It was later revealed that the evidence Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had against Hernandez Romero was his tattoos, which came from a report from the contractor CoreCivic, specifically from former police officer Charles Cross Jr., who lost his job with the Milwaukee police after he drunkenly crashed into a house and allegedly committed fraud. His name was subsequently added to the Brady List, a list of police officers who are considered non-credible for providing legal testimony in Milwaukee County.

Cross claimed that Hernandez Romero had crown tattoos associated with a gang. The tattoos are labeled “Mom” and “Dad” and are common symbols associated with his hometown of Capacho, Venezuela.

Cruel Kristi Noem says it’s not her problem if a gay hairdresser she sent to a prison camp is dead – LGBTQ Nation
She sent people to languish in the prison known for torturing inmates. Now she says how they’re treated isn’t her “jurisdiction.”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/05/cruel-kristi-noem-says-its-not-her-problem-if-a-gay-hairdresser-she-sent-to-a-camp-is

MSNBC: Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem is making the homeland less secure

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The former governor is overseeing a vast machine dedicated to encroaching on rights that she may not even know Americans have.

Since her confirmation as secretary of homeland security in January, Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem has appeared completely over her head at her new job. Most recently, when asked to define the legal principle of “habeas corpus,” the former South Dakota governor — one of the country’s top law enforcement officials — face-planted.

It was merely the latest in a string of embarrassments that underscores that America is less safe with [Bimbo #2] Noem assigned as its chief protector. [Bimbo #2] Noem’s department — hastily founded in a moment of fear — is charged with protecting the United States from threats both external and internal. With her focus turned almost exclusively toward executing President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy at all costs, the Department of Homeland Security has become a threat to our rights and liberties — many of which [Bimbo #2] Noem apparently doesn’t even know Americans possess.

…

But her most Trumpian public relations efforts since she took office have backfired. [Bimbo #2] Noem has been roundly mocked for her costume choices in her interviews and for wearing full-face makeup when she has tagged along on Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. The $50,000 Rolex flashing on her wrist while she posed in front of incarcerated men at a mega-prison in El Salvador smacked of callous cruelty. And the theft of her bag — along with $3,000 cash and her work badge — while she was sitting in a Washington restaurant was peak irony for a top security official.

She’s a top-notch bimbo — what else would you expect from a blithering fool?

Meanwhile, in the halls of Congress:

“Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, and suspend their right to … ,” [Bimbo #2] Noem responded before she was cut off by Hassan.

“That’s incorrect,” the senator said.

“Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason,” Hassan said, calling it a “foundational right.”

“So Secretary [Bimbo #2] Noem, do you support the core protection that habeas corpus provides, that the government must provide a public reason in order to detain and imprison someone?” she asked.

[Bimbo #2] Noem responded, “I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.”

The President has no such authority.

Opinion | Kristi Noem is making the homeland less secure
The former governor is overseeing a vast machine dedicated to encroaching on rights that she may not even know Americans have.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/kristi-noem-habeas-corpus-senate-deportation-rcna208009

MSNBC: I confronted Sec. Noem [Bimbo #2] because our democracy is threatened like never before

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President Trump has demonstrated he’s willing to tell any lie to justify jailing anyone.

Last month, President Donald Trump shared an edited image of the knuckles of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident with protected status wrongfully sent to a Salvadoran detention facility. The photo showed “MS13” apparently added above his knuckle tattoos, even though other photos of his hand did not have that text. Last week, I had a chance to ask Homeland Security Security Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem if she had investigated how an edited image came into the president’s hands. Not only did she refuse to answer, she barely acknowledged that the image was edited.

Politics is hyperbole. I know that voters have become inured to politicians saying, “The opposing party is the end of the country as we know it!” But what we are witnessing today is like nothing we have seen since the founding of this country, almost 250 years ago. Every warning light on democracy’s dashboard now flashes red.

Since taking the Oval Office, Trump has never been coy about his ambitions to rule as a dictator rather than serve as a president, accountable to the people who put him there. In just the past few months, he’s laid out the groundwork to jail innocent people and silence his political enemies, all under the guise of “law and order.” Perhaps in just a few months, Trump’s authoritarian ambitions will be realized. And it will be like how Hemingway described how one grows broke: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”Just last week, Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and one of his longest-serving enablers, said the White House was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus for immigrants.

Let’s be clear: Suspending the constitutional right to challenge unlawful detention is not some academic exercise or abstract policy debate, as many on the right may claim. Miller is deadly serious. There is no ambiguity. Equally explicit is the United States Constitution: Only Congress can suspend habeas corpus, and only in cases of actual rebellion or invasion.

Suspending habeas corpus is the move of dictators and despots.

Click the link below to read the whole article:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/eric-swalwell-kristi-noem-kilmar-abrego-garcia-rcna207275

MSNBC: The Trump administration likely sent scores of legal immigrants to a foreign prison

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The Cato Institute published the most comprehensive review to date of how the roughly 240 Venezuelans expelled to El Salvador came to the United States.

This week, the Cato Institute published the most comprehensive review to date of how the roughly 240 Venezuelans expelled on March 15 came to the United States. We found that at least 50 reported that they arrived in the United States legally before being subject to arbitrary arrest, detention and rendition to El Salvador without due process.

Information about the men was not easy to obtain. The U.S. government has aggressively suppressed disclosures. It not only denied them any due process before their imprisonment, leaving no court records, but it has failed to detail any individual explanations either.

In fact, DHS has refused even to confirm who it has imprisoned there, leaving families to rely on incomplete leaks to the media to uncover the whereabouts of their loved ones. As for the men, they are being held incommunicado — with no ability to communicate with their attorneys, families or the outside world at all — so they can’t tell their stories.

We attempted to fill this void by compiling all known information about these men. 

…

Some of the CBP One applicants sent to El Salvador were initially detained at their interview, but two dozen were first granted parole, a legal designation that permitted them to enter, live and work legally in the United States — which they did until their arrest and imprisonment in El Salvador. 

One of the now-imprisoned men entered as a tourist, and four men came through the U.S. refugee admissions program — where U.S. refugee officers believed they would face persecution abroad and officially approved them for resettlement. These refugees expected to receive a permanent legal status and a path to U.S. citizenship when they came here. Instead, they were handcuffed, detained and rendered to a foreign prison in March. 

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The government has selectively released information about some men who it wants to discredit, noting whenever possible if they entered illegally, but it has not rebutted the claims made by the legal immigrants’ families and attorneys.

…

For instance, Jerce Reyes Barrios — a former Venezuelan professional soccer player — came to the United States with advanced permission via a CBP One appointment (confirmation of which his attorney still has). In response, a DHS official said Reyes Barrios “was in the country illegally,” but this doesn’t explain DHS’s actions: he arrived legally with a CBP One appointment in accordance with all U.S. laws. It was DHS that made him technically be “in the country illegally” by arresting him based on his tattoos and denying him entry.

DHS also disappeared Ricardo Jesus Prada Vasquez and then lied to the family about his whereabouts for weeks, only admitting to his rendition after The New York Times reported on the case. In his case, DHS said that he had “entered the United States illegally … via the CBP One App.” But it was legal to enter via the CBP One app, so he didn’t enter illegally. 

DHS claims that these legal immigrants are all members of a Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua (TdA). But in nearly all the men’s cases, DHS was not able to identify any crimes committed, and background checks run by Bloomberg, The New York Times and CBS News have found that the vast majority have no criminal record in the United States or abroad.///

DHS’ gang identification is based on little more than their tattoos. According to court documents, DHS is using a checklist to deem people “gang members” based primarily on common tattoos, clothing and other imprecise signs …

DHS is arresting, detaining and expelling legal immigrants: student visa holders, tourists, refugees, parolees and even legal permanent residents who have no criminal records. In this case, it went further: to imprison them.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-dhs-legal-immigrants-el-salvador-prison-report-rcna207751

MSNBC: Judge says Trump administration violated court order with South Sudan deportation flight

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It’s the latest instance of a judge calling out the administration’s law-breaking.

A federal judge on Wednesday said the Trump administration violated a court order when it put a group of migrants on a plane to war-torn South Sudan without giving them a proper chance to challenge their removal. It’s the latest example of the administration breaking the law in carrying out Donald Trump’s agenda.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts last month had ordered the government to apply those safeguards before sending people to countries they aren’t from, or so-called third countries. Murphy said at a Wednesday hearing that the administration had “unquestionably” violated his order with Tuesday’s flight. The Biden appointee raised the possibility of contempt but didn’t make a final decision about that at the hearing.

Murphy had issued a separate order on Tuesday for the government to “maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.”

… a federal appeals court judge wrote Monday, “As is becoming far too common, we are confronted again with the efforts of the Executive Branch to set aside the rule of law in pursuit of its goals.” The judge continued, “It is the duty of courts to stand as a bulwark against the political tides that seek to override constitutional protections and fundamental principles of law, even in the name of noble ends like public safety.”

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/south-sudan-trump-violated-court-order-rcna208308