U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States, The Associated Press reports, in a story that includes a dozen photos of the crowded cell blocks, the armory. and an isolation unit. Noem’s trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.” The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that it was justified in sending the Venezuelans to El Salvador, while activists say officials have sent them to a prison rife with human rights abuses while presenting little evidence that they were part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
Noem had little to say about whether the deportees would be imprisoned indefinitely or ever brought back to the U.S. “We’re going to let the courts play out,” she told reporters. Noem toured a sweltering area holding some of the Venezuelans accused of being gang members, though relatives deny any gang affiliations. Noem said that if an immigrant commits a crime, “this is one of the consequences you could face,”she said. “First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.”
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