Migrant deportation to El Salvador's CECOT prison bolsters Trump's appeal among right-wing voters

In March 2025, 29-year-old Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador. Garcia was among a group of 261 deportees to El Salvador's Center for Combating Terrorism, the CECOT prison.

In the end, the US administration admitted that this deportation was an administrative mistake, but did nothing to correct it.

The U.S. government also claims that Garcia is affiliated with the dangerous Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13), a claim denied by Garcia himself and his lawyers.

The Trump administration is demonstrating to its electorate an uncompromisingly brutal migration policy. By labeling migrants as being involved in criminal gangs and sending them to the CECOT fund - outside of US jurisdiction - Trump is meeting the expectations of his base, which wants retribution for real or imagined "violations" attributed to undocumented immigrants.