Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is arriving in El Salvador today, where she will tour the maximum-security mega-prison complex detaining hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants and asylum seekers sent by the United States after the Trump administration accused them, without evidence, of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Human rights groups have documented gross violations at the mega-prison, built by the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in 2022 after he began enforcing a state of emergency. Protesters took to the streets of San Salvador on Tuesday.

Carolina Rivas: “We condemn the use of our land as an imperial prison and the attempt to turn our territory into free zones for neofascist experimentation. We demand the immediate release of all kidnapped Venezuelan migrants. We demand unrestricted respect for their human rights, due process and the right to migrate.”

On Monday, a U.S. federal judge condemned how the Trump administration expelled the Venezuelans to El Salvador without due process. U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett said, “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here.” She was citing how the wartime act was invoked during World War II.