Trump's Interior Secretary, from Bukele's prison: "This is what will happen to him if he comes to the United States."

BarcelonaA group of prisoners lined up shirtless to show off their tattoos, theoretical proof of gang membership, behind the bars of a cell. On the other side of the bars, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem warns: "I want you to know that if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face. Do not come to our country illegally." United but also to defy the judge who is keeping open a case against the Trump administration to try to determine whether it disobeyed her court order to stop the deportation of 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador.

Noem traveled to El Salvador this Tuesday to visit the mega-prison where these Venezuelans were deported On Saturday, March 15, the Tecoluca Terrorism Confinement Center, eighty kilometers from San Salvador, the country's capital. It is a large, impregnable prison and the epicenter of the repressive policy of the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, in his particular "war against the gangs", and which this Tuesday (Catalan Wednesday morning) became the scene of a commercial about the Trump administration's tough approach to immigration. After her visit to the center, Noem met with President Bukele.

Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport these immigrants as alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, but without any judicial process to prove it. The deportation was made possible by an agreement between Bukele and Trump, three years after the establishment of a state of emergency in El Salvador, which Bukele has been extending monthly under the pretext of fighting gangs but which suspends constitutional rights in the country to facilitate arrests. The country's prison population has tripled during this time, with overcrowding reaching 300% according to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Noem has visited this enormous prison, Bukele's crown jewel, guarded by hundreds of soldiers and police officers, and currently holding 14,500 inmates. Since taking office, Noem has led the Trump administration's effort to show off its tough stance on immigration. The Secretary of State has participated in immigration enforcement operations, appeared on horseback with Border Patrol agents, and also ran a television campaign warning undocumented migrants to self-deport. Now she's visiting the Salvadoran prison at the center of the Trump administration's most serious legal battle. Washington Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the deportation flights halted, is engaged in a dispute with the White House over whether he disobeyed his order. This Tuesday, Trump invoked the state secret to avoid informing the judge of the specific takeoff times of the deportation planes.

After visiting the prison where the 200 Venezuelans deported from the United States are being held, Noem meets with the country's president, Bayib Bukele. His trip will last two more days, during which he will visit Colombia and Mexico to promote a coordinated fight against irregular immigration and organized crime that smuggles fentanyl into the United States from these countries.