Quick Take: A new Human Rights Watch report exposes that Salvadorans deported from the U.S. are being systematically detained without due process and hidden within El Salvador’s massive prison system, a practice that appears to violate international law and raises profound questions about the U.S.’s deportation agreements with authoritarian allies.
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a Salvadoran returned to the U.S. in March 2025 after a judgeordered his release from El Salvador—hid a darker secret. While Garcia’s story ended with his reunion in Maryland, dozens of other deportees have simply vanished into El Salvador’s prison network, their families left with no information about their whereabouts or fate. This pattern, now documented by human rights investigators, suggests a systematic operation of enforced disappearances targeting Salvadoran nationals returned from the United States.
Salvadoran nationals deported from the U.S. have been arbitrarily detained and have disappeared into El Salvador’s prison system, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Monday. The detainees are among more than 9,000 Salvadorans deported since President Donald Trump’s second administration began in January 2025. Some were deported alongside Venezuelans and sent directly to the Center for Terrorism Confinement, a mega prison in El Salvador also known as CECOT, as detailed by Associated Press.
The Human Rights Watch investigation interviewed 20 relatives and lawyers of 11 Salvadorans deported between March and October 2025. All reported that the detainees cannot communicate with families or access legal counsel. The group did not specify an exact number of victims but described the phenomenon as widespread. “They have a right to due process, to be taken before a judge, and their relatives are entitled to know where they are being held and why,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Deportation cannot mean enforced disappearance.”
The State of Emergency That Never Ended
This isn’t an isolated incident but the latest chapter in El Salvador’s ongoing state of emergency. President Nayib Bukele declared a “state of emergency” in March 2022 to suppress the country’s gangs, suspending key constitutional rights. What was billed as a temporary measure has been extended for nearly four years, leading to the detention of approximately 91,300 people—a scale of incarceration unmatched in recent Latin American history. Bukele himself has acknowledged that around 8,000 innocent people have been released, yet the dragnet continues.
Under the emergency decree, most detainees are held based on scant evidence and vague accusations. Prisoners are often judged in mass trials, and lawyers regularly lose track of their clients. Rights groups have documented beatings by guards, sexual abuse, and deteriorating prison conditions. Families are left in agonizing uncertainty, unsure if they will ever see their loved ones again. The emergency powers have effectively created a parallel justice system where detention is indefinite and transparency is absent.
The Human Cost: Mothers Searching in Silence
The report highlights harrowing personal stories. One 47-year-old mother in Maryland, who lives without legal status, last spoke to her 29-year-old son three days before his March 15, 2025, deportation. She discovered his whereabouts six months later when she saw a photograph posted online by Bukele showing detainees at CECOT. “I still know nothing about my son, nothing,” she said, requesting anonymity for fear of her own arrest in the U.S. and reprisals against her son. Her son had crossed the Mexican border at age 17 and lived in the U.S. for over a decade.
Another mother in Texas, also without legal status, learned her 22-year-old son was in El Salvador through the same grim method: a photo on social media. A year after his deportation, she has called authorities in both countries countless times with no response. “I’ve never spoken to him,” she said. “It’s total silence. We know nothing about him, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
These cases illustrate a chilling new reality: deportation from the U.S. no longer means just removal, but potential forced disappearance into a foreign prison system with no recourse.
Why This Matters to the United States
The U.S. has increasingly relied on El Salvador as a destination for deportations under the Trump administration’s hardening immigration policies. The administration asserts that several of the deported Salvadorans are members of the MS-13 gang. Yet Human Rights Watch found that only 10.5% of the 9,000 Salvadorans deported had a conviction for a violent or potentially violent crime in the U.S. This disparity raises urgent questions about whether the U.S. is outsourcing its immigration enforcement to a regime with a documented record of human rights abuses.
By deporting individuals to a country where they may be subjected to arbitrary detention and denied basic due process, the U.S. risks complicity in human rights violations. The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—who was erroneously deported and later returned after a federal judge’s intervention—shows that errors occur even under official protocols. For those without legal representation or public attention, there may be no such remedy.
Historical Context: From Gang Crackdown to Political Weapon
President Bukele’s “state of emergency” began as a popular response to gang violence but has morphed into a tool for political control. The emergency powers allow warrantless arrests, suspend freedom of assembly, and limit the right to defense. The mass incarceration campaign has drawn international condemnation from organizations like the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, yet it continues with tacit U.S. support through deportation agreements.
El Salvador’s prison system, particularly CECOT, is designed for maximum isolation and control. With a capacity far exceeding normal prison standards, it has become a black hole for detainees. The fact that deportees are being funneled directly into this system suggests a coordinated strategy between U.S. immigration authorities and Salvadoran security forces—one that bypasses any semblance of judicial review.
- 9,000+ Salvadorans deported from the U.S. since January 2025
- 91,300+ people detained in El Salvador under the state of emergency
- Only 10.5% of deported Salvadorans had U.S. convictions for violent crimes
- 8,000 innocent detainees released by Bukele’s own admission
- Zero communication allowed for deportees held at CECOT
The convergence of U.S. deportation policy and El Salvador’s authoritarian security apparatus creates a perfect storm for human rights abuses. Families in the U.S., often themselves living without legal status, are too fearful to speak out. The silence is intentional and effective.
This story is not just about one country’s internal policies. It is about how the world’s largest economy manages its immigration burden by transferring vulnerable people to a partner with a documented record of arbitrary detention. The legal and ethical implications are staggering, yet they remain underexamined in the mainstream debate over deportation numbers.
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