The prisoners: What records show about the migrants sent to Salvadoran mega-prison
Three weeks ago, 238 Venezuelan migrants were flown from Texas to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
That country’s president offered to take them and the Trump administration used a law not invoked since World War II to send them — claiming they are all terrorists and violent gang members.
The government has released very little information about the men. But through internal government documents, we have obtained a list of their identities and found that an overwhelming majority have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges.
They are now prisoners.
Among them: a makeup artist, a soccer player and a food delivery driver, being held in a place so harsh that El Salvador’s justice minister once said the only way out is in a coffin. [Continue reading…]