The Men Unjustly Purged To A Salvadoran Mega-Prison By The Trump Administration Are Speaking Out

“The country with the Statue of Liberty deprived us of our liberty without any kind of evidence,” said one formerly imprisoned man.

“Cemetary of the living dead.” “I practically felt like an animal.” “It looked like a cage.” “We felt dead.”

This is how men who were unjustly purged to El Salvador by the Trump administration despite the vast majority of them having no criminal record at all have described the more than 100 days they spent in the mega-prison known as CECOT. Now freed to Venezuela under a prisoner swap with the U.S., several are speaking out. So much for the Trump administration’s repeated claim to both the courts and the American public that it had absolutely no influence to have the men returned back to the U.S.

In harrowing testimonies, some of the released men have described their horrific experiences as “torture” and akin to a “horror movie.” Cells “reeked of urine and sewage.” Contact with loved ones or attorneys was forbidden as physical and emotional abuse was rampant. One man described being sexually assaulted by a guard as his colleagues mocked him. Others were left feeling so brutally defeated by beatings at the hands of sadistic guards that they self-harmed, believing that death was preferable to another day in a foreign gulag that no one ever leaves.

“They are bewildered, frightened, angry,” ProPublica reports. “Some said their feelings about what happened were still so raw they had trouble finding words to describe them. All of the men said they were abused physically and mentally during their imprisonment. Their relatives say they, too, went through hell wondering whether their loved ones were alive or dead, or if they would ever see them again.” As a reminder, "disappearances are the tools of authoritarian regimes,” the National Immigration Law Center has said. 

Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano followed the rules by making an appointment “to approach the U.S.-Mexico border last October, as had more than 50 of the men,” the report said. Like other men, he was targeted over his tattoos. “He never set foot in the U.S. as a free man,” instead finding himself at the notorious mega-prison where beatings were constant, saying he witnessed one man get so brutally assaulted by staffers that he defecated on himself. “Guards laughed at him and left him there for a day,” the report said.

“The country with the Statue of Liberty deprived us of our liberty without any kind of evidence,” Solórzano said. “Who is going to go to the border now, knowing that they will grab you and put you in a prison where they will kill you?”

Andry Hernández Romero, the gay asylum-seeker purged to El Salvador after fleeing political persecution in Venezuela, alleged he was “tortured, sexually abused, and denied food,” the Advocate reports. Like other men, his loved ones had no idea of his status once he was at CECOT, after officials like DHS Secretary Kristi Noem flat-out refused to give any updates on whether he was even still alive. Like Solórzano, Romero also followed the rules by making an appointment to seek to enter the U.S. For following the rules, he was punished, humiliated, and degraded.

“In my particular case, I was sexually abused by the same Salvadoran authorities who guarded us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” Romero said according to the Advocate.

“I poured some water on myself, and they caught me,” he continued. “They took me to solitary confinement and abused me. I was forced to perform oral sex on an officer. Three officers grabbed the batons and passed them over my private parts. And for me, that was just too devastating.” Romero’s arrival at the gulag was observed by Time magazine photographer Philip Holsinger, who said he heard a young man cry that “I'm not a gang member. I'm gay. I'm a stylist.” 60 Minutes reported that the man, who we now know was Romero, “cried for his mother as he was slapped and had his head shaved.”

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And in his legal filing against the Trump administration, Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego García said he was subjected to “‘psychological torture,” “severe beatings,” and lost more than 30 pounds due to malnutrition, CBS News reports. 

“Shortly after his arrival at the Salvadoran mega-prison, an official there said, ‘Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn't leave,’ the court filing alleges,” the report said. “Abrego Garcia says he was kept in a crowded, windowless cell with metal bunks and lights that remained on for 24 hours a day. In one case, Abrego Garcia and his cellmates were allegedly forced to kneel for nine hours, and were struck if they fell down.” And like in the case of Romero, the dad found himself targeted over tattoos – tattoos that the Salvadoran regime itself appeared to brush aside.

“Early on during his time at CECOT, Abrego Garcia says prison staff sorted a group of inmates based on whether they had gang tattoos but acknowledged that wasn't the case for him, saying, ‘Your tattoos are fine,’” the report continued. “The Trump administration has alleged in the past that Abrego Garcia has tattoos linking him to the gang MS-13, which his lawyers have strongly denied.” 

At one point, the administration even shared a photo that one can only conclude was a government-sanctioned effort to intentionally mislead the public about this alleged gang membership. Recall the  "M," "S," "1" and "3" digitally added to a photo of his tattoos? Mick Mulvaney, a former chief of staff to Trump under his first administration, tried to claim it was the fault of bad staff. And there’s no disputing the staff is bad. But as journalist Mehdi Hasan noted, Trump lashed out at a reporter who tried to correct him. And for all the unfounded talk from the administration that it was removing alleged baddies – once again, most of these men have been convicted of zip – yet it freed and released into the U.S. a convicted murderer.

As the men targeted by the administration now try to rebuild their lives, it’s not only important that we honor their powerful testimonies, it’s important that we also remember that U.S. citizens are not immune from these purges. Just ahead of a press gaggle in the Oval Office this past April, a hot mic caught Trump casually informing Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele that he’ll seek to purge “home growns” to CECOT. "Home-growns are next. The home-growns,” Trump was heard telling his fellow authoritarian. “You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough." The response from others in the room was not shock over the likely illegal idea of extraditing American citizens to a foreign gulag, but instead villainous laughter. 

“If President Trump can wrongly deport a Maryland father to a prison in El Salvador and then defy a 9-0 Supreme Court order to facilitate bringing him home, who’s next?” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asked at the time. “This threatens the rights and freedoms of everyone in the United States.”

Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, another man who suffered abuse after being purged to CECOT, says he has no plans to return to the U.S. following his release and is instead spending time with his daughter. He has, however, filed an administrative claim against the federal government. “It is the first such claim to be filed by one of the 252 Venezuelan men who were expelled and sent to El Salvador in March,” The New York Times reports. He said he hopes the action spares “other migrants from enduring the same treatment he received,” the outlet reported. And, remembering Trump’s infamous words from the Oval Office, we should hope it helps spare U.S. citizens as well.

“For every other migrant still in the United States — no matter who they are or what country they are from — I wish that they are able to meet their goals and work hard for their families and not have everything taken from them,” Rengel said.