Kristi Noem tours El Salvadors hell-hole CECOT prison ahead of negotiations for more gangbanger deportation flights
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in El Salvador Wednesday to tour the notoriously hellish prison housing alleged gang members deported by the Trump administration — and she’s expected to ask the South American country’s president to make more room.Noem, 53, arrived at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), where 250 suspected Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members were shipped from the US by President Trump earlier this month.They joined 15,000 inmates already held at the infamous lockup — which is known for deliberately dehumanizing conditions intended to serve as the ultimate deterrent in El Salvador’s years-long battle against gang violence.There she viewed rows of tattooed inmates standing obediently along the bars of their massive but crammed cells and got a glimpse of the arsenal of heavy weaponry — including assault rifles — the prison’s army of guards use to maintain order.“No one expects that these people can go back to society and behave,” said Gustavo Villatoro, El Salvador’s minister of justice and public security, as he led Noem on a tour through the sweltering prisoner barracks, according to a press pool report.Several of the inmates Noem was shown were the suspected gangbangers Trump shipped south, and like the rest of the prisoners, they stood silent in their uniforms of white T-shirts and shorts.True to her nickname — ICE Barbie — Noem put her flowing hair on display under her Immigration and Customs Enforcement baseball hat as she was led through the facility.After the tour, Noem will meet with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and is expected to discuss increasing the number of US deportees bound for CECOT, Fox News reported.Her visit to El Salvador is the first stop in a three-day tour of Latin American countries to discuss organized crime that’s been spilling beyond their borders and pouring into the US.She is expected to travel to Colombia next and then Mexico, where she’ll meet with each natio...