2025-04-11
34 分钟This is In Conversation from Apple News.
I'm Shamita Basu.
Today, Trump's immigration agenda.
Last month, the Trump administration deported 238 Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador.
They had no court hearings about their deportation orders, no chance to call a lawyer, no due process.
The administration says that these migrants have ties to a Venezuelan gang,
but has provided little evidence to support these claims.
In the weeks since the deportations, we've learned that most of these men do not have criminal histories.
One was deported by mistake.
In a recent interview on 60 Minutes,
photojournalist Philip Halsinger described the conditions where these men are being held in a maximum security prison in El Salvador known as SICOT.
Life in the cell in SICOT is the definition of austerity.
The bunks are steel.
There are no blankets, there are no pillows, there are no books,
there's no television, zero outside communication, nothing goes out, nothing comes in.
The men were deported to this prison after President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act,
the 1798 law that gives the president broad authority
to detain and deport immigrants who are living in the U.S. lawfully but who are deemed enemies of the country.
This law has been invoked three times in U.S. history, only during wartime.
The Brennan Center describes it as an overbroad law that even in wartime may violate constitutional rights and in peacetime is subject to abuse.