Secret US deal sent deportees to El Salvador, where families say they effectively vanished

Washington struck a migration deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele within weeks of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but kept its terms private. More than a year later, families of 11 Salvadoran men deported under the arrangement say their relatives effectively vanished inside El Salvador’s prison system, according to RFI.

The men were among 36 Salvadorans deported on military flights in March and April 2025, alongside 252 Venezuelans. They were taken to CECOT, the maximum-security prison built for Bukele’s anti-gang crackdown. They were held there without legal process, as a state of exception in place since 2022 lets Salvadoran authorities detain people without a lawyer or judge.

The Venezuelans went home four months later in a prisoner swap. However, the Salvadorans stayed behind, accused of gang membership. Relatives say immigration officials, prosecutors and prison staff repeatedly told them there was no record of the men entering El Salvador. The US offered no answers either, as ICE removes deportees from its online detainee locator.

The US was paying El Salvador to keep these men locked up

The deal’s terms surfaced months later, when a government document emerged in a class-action lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. It showed Washington agreed to pay $4.76 million to hold Venezuelan and Salvadoran deportees at CECOT. A State Department letter also made the funding conditional on El Salvador not giving asylum seekers resources or legal help.

Human Rights Watch, which earlier accused El Salvador of the enforced disappearance of deportees, found only 10 percent of the Salvadorans had US records for violent or potentially violent crimes. The group and Salvadoran organization Cristosal also documented severe, systematic abuse inside CECOT, including sexual violence.

After families went to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, El Salvador disclosed that one of the 11 identified men was at CECOT and five were at Santa Ana prison. Some families still do not know where their relatives are being held.

One sister, Glenda, recognized her brother Elmer Concepcion Romero Janes in Salvadoran government footage that presented him as a dangerous MS-13 member. He had called her from a California federal prison expecting to go home, and Glenda said nobody told him he would be locked up. The family then lost track of him for more than a year.

Elmer was sentenced to eight years in the US at age 17 for group assault and involuntary manslaughter, and was deported after serving his time. He returned in 2023 and spent 26 months in detention before this latest removal. Glenda said he went back to support his son, as times are hard in El Salvador.

Salvadoran authorities have since confirmed he is held incommunicado at Santa Ana, but have not said what he is accused of. Even though the prosecutors gave his family a certificate stating he has no criminal record in El Salvador, the families’ lawyers still have not seen case files or been told of any charges against the men.

Another sister, Karen, is searching for Kevin Rolando Barrera Torres, whom Salvadoran police accused of gang membership in 2015 before establishing his innocence. Karen alleges police later tortured him in a cemetery to force a confession. She said prosecutors confirmed he arrived on the first flight but refused to show her the paperwork.

Kelvi Zambrano, a lawyer for Kevin’s family, argues his deportation breached non-refoulement, the international rule against returning people to places where they face serious harm. “The crime starts in the United States and continues in El Salvador,” Zambrano said.

Zambrano, who represents nine of the 11 identified families, has filed a complaint that could see the Salvadoran state held responsible for enforced disappearance.