Press Releases

WASHINGTON—Today, Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, along with 27 other Members of the House of Representatives, have written a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin demanding information on the individuals sent on deportation flights to El Salvador who are still held incommunicado in the notorious maximum-security torture prison, CECOT, and other prisons.  

“We are extremely concerned the U.S. government has denied these individuals the right to challenge these deportations and detentions,” wrote the lawmakers in their letter. “As Members of Congress, it is our moral and official duty to ensure that the United States does not violate international human rights standards by ensuring transparency and accounting of official U.S. acts.” 

In March and April 2025, the Trump Administration sent some 30 to 40 Salvadorans, along with more than 200 Venezuelans, to be held in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador. Multiple reports by international human rights monitors have documented horrific conditions in prisons across El Salvador, including in CECOT, including torture.

While the Venezuelans were repatriated to Venezuela, the status of the deported Salvadorans is largely unknown. Family members of those sent to CECOT and other prisons, and their lawyers, are unable to ascertain information about the health and status of their loved ones, or even if they are still alive.

Specifically, the letter asks for the release of the names, nationalities, and immigration file numbers of every individual from these deportation flights still held incommunicado in CECOT and in other prisons.  The lawmakers cite legal and administrative precedents for the release of such information, as well as the fact that the White House has already published some of the names, disproving anticipated arguments that the information cannot be released for national security reasons.

“The U.S. government’s refusal to provide information about these individuals to Congress, the public, and especially their families, amounts to acts of enforced disappearance, a human rights violation under international law.  Whether their names are part of the public record or not, all the men who the U.S. government deported to El Salvador deserve due process and equitable treatment, regardless of any criminal misconduct or deportation orders in their past,” conclude the Members of Congress in their letter.