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The Conversation
Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson College

Beatings, overcrowding and food deprivation: US deportees face distressing human rights conditions in El Salvador’s mega-prison

Shackled and bent over – some of the 250-plus deportees arriving in El Salvador. El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele framed his offer to house “dangerous American criminals” and “criminals from any country” as a win-win for all.

The fee for transferring detainees to a newly built Salvadoran mega-prison “would be relatively low” for the U.S. but enough to make El Salvador’s “entire prison system sustainable,” Bukele wrote in a post on the social media platform X dated Feb. 3, 2025.

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