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Topics: Donald Trump, News, US News, El Salvador
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Donald Trump, News, US News, El Salvador
President Trump has insisted he would be tough on immigration and illegal activity and has recently sent over 250 individuals to a prison that maintains a brutal reputation.
Trump has praised his administration for its latest move in its fight against illegal immigration and crime.
Over 250 alleged criminals have been deported to El Salvador’s mega prison that is notorious for housing Venezuelan gang members as well as mass murderers.
The Center for Terrorism Confinement is considered the largest prison in the Americas and can home up to 40,000 inmates.
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To carry out the deportations Trump used a little-known law that was previously used during WW2 to justify internment camps for Japanese, German and Italian people within the nation. It is known as the 18th-century wartime legislation, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
When Trump returned to the White House he signed an executive order that claimed that the US was under an 'invasion' of immigrants linked to organized crime, giving his administration justification for enacting this law.
A federal judge tried to block the order by ruling against the deportation however it is believed the flight was already airborne.
The prison itself was visited by CNN’s David Culver who spoke of the ‘spartan’ conditions inmates are expected to live in.
Culver and his team reported that cells are unlike American prisons in that they are ‘built to hold 80 inmates’ or more. As well as this, inmates are held for 23.5 hours a day, far from the expected ‘luxuries’ of American prisons.
Culver reported: “The only furniture is tiered metal bunks, with no sheets, pillows or mattresses … an open toilet, a cement basin and plastic bucket for washing and a large jug for drinking water.”
Currently it is believed between 10,000 and 20,000 prisoners are housed there with the 261 people shipped to the country by Trump’s administration believed to be the newest inmates.
Of the 261, 238 of them have been accused of being affiliated with or a member of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 alleged members of the MS-13 gang.
The team noted that there is no ‘privacy or comfort’ for the inmates who are held here.
They added: “They do not work. They are not allowed books or a deck of cards or letters from home. Plates of food are stacked outside the cells at mealtimes and pulled through the bars. No meat is ever served. The 30-minute daily respite is merely to leave the cell for the central hallway for group exercise or Bible readings.”
The critics of the prison and the conditions have argued that the civil liberties of the prisoners are being violated.
However, the government insists that the crackdown on gang-affiliated criminals has made the country safer.