US President Donald Trump's homeland security chief on Wednesday visited the mega-prison in El Salvador where hundreds of Venezuelan migrants have been deported under contested legal grounds.
Standing in front of a cell of inmates who were stripped to the waist, revealing their tattooed torsos, Kristi Noem recorded a message telling others that they risked the same consequences.
"Do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted," she said at the maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
"Know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people."
Trump invoked rarely used US wartime legislation in mid-March to bypass traditional deportation procedures and quickly flew 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador.
Washington accused them of all belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang, which it has designated a "terrorist" organization, but relatives and lawyers for several of the migrants say they have no connection to the group.
The deportations took place despite a US federal judge, on the same day, ordering a temporary halt.
The Trump administration subsequently appealed the halt, but a three-judge panel ruled on Wednesday that it can remain in effect.
On Monday, a law firm hired by Caracas filed a habeas corpus petition, demanding justification be provided for the migrants' continued detention.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the motion seeks the release of countrymen he described as having been kidnapped.
According to the White House, Washington paid the Bukele administration around $6 million for the detention of the deportees.
Noem, on the first stop of a regional tour that will also include Colombia and Mexico, was also due to meet Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
She said earlier that she would discuss how the United States "can increase the number of deportation flights and removals of violent criminals from the US."
In a statement from the US embassy in San Salvador, the United States said that Noem had signed an information sharing agreement with Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Security Gustavo Villatoro.
"This agreement strengthens the commitment of both countries in the fight against transnational crime," the embassy said.
With AFP
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