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As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem toured a notorious megaprison in El Salvador on Wednesday, she took the opportunity to use the men incarcerated there as a backdrop for her latest video to warn migrants not to enter the United States illegally.
“I also want everybody to know, if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face,” Noem says in the video, standing in front of a cell housing dozens of shirtless, tattooed men. “First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted.”
The facility, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, is a maximum-security prison built by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele that can hold up to 40,000 people. Those incarcerated at CECOT do not have visitation rights, and they are not afforded outdoor recreation time or given access to educational programs. Salvadoran officials have said those serving time in CECOT will never leave the facility.
With virtually no due process, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants it claims are part of the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, where they are incarcerated at CECOT.
In the video, Noem warned that the administration would continue to send migrants to CECOT, calling the facility “one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.”
Multiple families have said their Venezuelan relatives deported to El Salvador have no criminal records or gang affiliations, and that the administration has not provided evidence of their alleged gang membership.
Noem’s video, which has been widely criticized, follows a pattern of her using immigration enforcement activities as photo ops, often with a full face of makeup and her hair blown out. True to form, in a subsequent post on X Thursday morning, Noem shared a series of glossy photos of herself touring the Salvadoran prison.