Headlines for April 1, 2025

The Trump administration has transferred another group of immigrants to a supermax mega-prison complex in El Salvador — the second such removal from the U.S. in two weeks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday 17 immigrants from Venezuela and El Salvador accused of being gang members had been sent to the Salvadoran mega-prison Sunday after previously being detained at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Hundreds of immigrants and asylum seekers have been expelled to El Salvador without due process, with many accused of belonging to gangs largely on the basis of having tattoos. One Venezuelan asylum seeker currently languishing in the Salvadoran supermax prison was detained and removed for tattoos on each forearm — one that read “mom” and one that read “dad.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has admitted in a court filing that a Salvadoran father with protected status was among the hundreds of immigrants who were transferred to El Salvador’s mega-prison complex earlier this month. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland with his family, was granted protected status in 2019, prohibiting the federal government from sending him back to El Salvador after he fled gang violence. The Trump administration said Garcia was removed to El Salvador “because of an administrative error” and that it could not bring him back to the U.S. because he’s now in Salvadoran custody.