Trump admin claimed CECOT held worst "terrorists." Then they just let them go
Source: Salon Magazine
Trump admin claimed CECOT held worst “terrorists.” Then they just let them go
Charles R. Davis
Thu, July 24, 2025 at 6:30 AM EDT
5 min read
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The Trump administration had claimed we were at war and that these were the combatants, all ostensibly members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, said to be directed by Venezuela’s anti-American government, a “hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion and predatory incursion into the United States,” as a presidential proclamation put it.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was unequivocal: these men had committed crimes so egregious that none of them should ever be let out.
“We’re confident that that people that are [imprisoned in El Salvador] should be there, and they should stay there for the rest of their lives,” Noem said three months ago, citing “intelligence work by ICE and other agencies, including the State Department.”
And then they just let them go.
In a July 18 post on social media, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced that the Venezuelans held in his country were headed to South America in return for 10 Americans being held by the government in Caracas. In the end, the Trump administration decided to release — by its own logic — some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists, back to the criminal organization that directed their actions, at a 25-to-1 exchange rate.
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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-admin-claimed-cecot-held-103015785.html