Wasted $4.7M, Due Process Denied: Investigate the CECOT Deportations

The United States spent $4.7 million to send hundreds of Venezuelan men to El Salvador’s CECOT prison under claims they were dangerous criminals. Public reporting and human rights investigations show that claim was false. Nearly half had no criminal record at all, and only eight were convicted of violent crimes. That means taxpayers paid roughly $600,000 per violent offender, while dozens of nonviolent people were sent to a prison internationally documented for torture and severe abuse. Americans across parties agree that violent criminals should be removed from the country. What we do not agree to is lawlessness. These deportations bypassed due process, relied on broad guilt by association, and ignored court intervention. When the government decides it can skip hearings, ignore judges, and outsource punishment to a foreign prison, it weakens the Constitution itself. That precedent does not stop at immigration. This decision will have lasting consequences for our credibility as a nation governed by law. Congress must investigate who authorized this payment, who approved these removals, and why constitutional safeguards were discarded. Kristi Noem, Donald Trump, and all officials involved must be held accountable. The American people will not accept cruelty, waste, and lawlessness carried out in our name.