Stephen Mead Art

It's also important to remember that many of the Venezuelans sent to CECOT had NO criminal records. ICE used questionable criteria (especially tattoos) to determine whether someone was a Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang member. According to the video & an NPR report, tattoos are not "identifiers" for TdA. But even if someone were a gang member, the CECOT prison is a living hell that, according to a Human Rights Watch Nov. 2025 report, violates international human rights.

“The human rights violations documented in this report violate El Salvador’s obligations under international law…. US officials repeatedly denied relatives of people sent to CECOT information on their whereabouts, making the US government complicit in their enforced disappearances. The US government also violated its legal obligations to respect the principle of non-refoulement by transferring Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador despite easily foreseeable risks of torture and ill-treatment.” —Human Rights Watch, Americas Division | Nov. 12, 2025

Amnesty International has also documented the human rights violations at CECOT and warned officials in El Salvador & the U.S. that they are breaking international law.

Government officials should NOT design or implement inhumane policies EVER, but especially if they don't have firsthand knowledge of what it is like to be on the receiving end of those policies. Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Tom Homan might act tough in front of a camera, but would likely completely lose it it they had to spend even one day at CECOT as a prisoner.

And the whiny little felon Trump, who never had to spend a day in jail, despite all his crimes, would not last more than a few hours at CECOT as a prisoner without completely falling apart.

ALL of them should be charged with international human rights violations--and they know it, which is probably why the Trump administration has been threatening the International Criminal Court.