Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the prison in El Salvador holding migrants at the center of the deportation battle playing out in U.S. courts.
Noem toured the Terrorist Confinement Center with the Salvadorian minister of justice, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official, and later was set to meet with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador.
Donning a blue U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement baseball cap, Noem walked the halls of the prison with men with guns and a cadre of U.S. Secret Service agents. She saw prisoners in cells with masks on lined up with their shirts off and crunched together.
“This week, I’m headed down to El Salvador,” Noem said ahead of the visit during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Monday. “I’ll be in the prison where we sent [Tren De Aragua] gang members. I’ll be meeting with the president and also Colombia and Mexico and talking about building these relationships so we can continue to get people out of this country that don’t belong here and take them home.”
She said the president talked to her about “sending the message worldwide” that people shouldn’t illegally be entering the United States.
The DHS has rolled out a $200 million advertising campaign to tell people who are thinking about coming to the U.S. illegally not to come and to urge those who are in the U.S. without legal status to leave.
“They shouldn’t be coming here illegally,” Noem said. “So we are in several other countries around the world with a message right now that’s saying if you are thinking about coming to America illegally, don’t do it — you are not welcome. We have a legal process to become a United States citizen, and there are consequences if you come here illegally.”
The administration allegedly sent members of the Venezuelan Tren De Aragua gang to the infamous prison — even though a federal judge ordered officials not to do so.
“America has changed because we are putting Americans first,” Noem concluded during the meeting on Monday.
Noem will also meet with leaders from Colombia and with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum later in the week.
“President Trump and Secretary Noem have a clear message for criminal aliens considering entering America illegally: don’t even think about it. If you come to our country and break our laws, we will hunt you down, and lock you up,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “This trip underscores the importance of our partner countries to help remove violent criminal illegal aliens from the United States.”
