President Donald Trump insisted yet again that “horrible criminals” were deported to El Salvador, but a 60 Minutes investigation proved otherwise.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said he would be “honored” to hand over American citizens to El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele has worked with the Trump administration to detain deportees in a notorious mega-prison known as Cecot.
“I love that,” Trump said of Bukele’s willingness to take in more Americans. “If he would take them, I’d be honored to give them… If they can house these horrible criminals for a lot less money than it costs us, I’m all for it, but I’d only do according to the law.”
But an investigation by CBS News’ 60 Minutes found that the 238 Venezuelan migrants flown by the U.S. to an El Salvadoran maximum-security prison three weeks ago were not who they seemed.
The migrants were transported on flights that have since become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s showdown with the judiciary, with federal judge James Boasberg slamming the government for acting in “bad faith” in the deportations.
60 Minutes said it reviewed internal government documents listing the migrants’ names and cross-referenced them with domestic and international court filings, news reports, and arrest records to verify their criminal histories.
The investigation found that 75% of those migrants now detained in El Salvador had no criminal record, 22% had a criminal history—mostly for non-violent offenses like theft, shoplifting, and trespassing—and three percent had unclear records.
Only a dozen of the migrants were accused of murder, rape, assault, and kidnapping.
A Homeland Security spokesperson told 60 Minutes that “many of the individuals that are counted as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.”
“Further, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally,” the spokesperson said. “It is not an accurate description to say they are ‘non-criminals.’ This deceptive categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public.”
Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said there are other ways to deal with people who enter the U.S. illegally.
“If they are here illegally and don’t have the right to stay, they can be deported back to their home country. If they’ve committed crimes, they can be prosecuted and perhaps spend many, many years in a U.S. prison,” he said.
“It’s not a matter of can these individuals be punished,” Gelernt added. “It’s a matter of how the government is going to go about doing it. Once we start using wartime authority with no oversight, anything is possible. Anybody can be picked up.”
