TECOLUCA, El Salvador: US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit.
Noem’s trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”
The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that it was justified in sending the Venezuelans to El Salvador, while activists say officials have sent them to a prison rife with human rights abuses while presenting little evidence that they were part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
Noem notably dodged questions by the press about if the Venezuelan deportees were going to be in the prison indefinitely and if the Venezuelans could ever be brought back to the US if a court orders the administration to do so.
“We’re going to let the courts play out,” she told reporters following the visit.
Noem toured an area holding some of the Venezuelans accused of being gang members. In the sweltering building, the men in white T-shirts and shorts stared silently from their cell, then were heard shouting an indiscernible chant when she left.
In a cell block holding Salvadoran prisoners, about a dozen were lined up by guards near the front of their cell and told to remove their T-shirts and face masks. The men were heavily tattooed, some bearing the letters MS, for the Mara Salvatrucha gang, on their chests.
After listening to Salvadoran officials, Noem turned her back to the cell and recorded a video message.
If an immigrant commits a crime, “this is one of the consequences you could face,” Noem said. “First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.”
Noem also met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, a populist who has gained right-wing admiration in the US due to his crackdown on the country’s gangs, despite the democratic and due process implications that have come with it.
“This unprecedented relationship we have with El Salvador is going to be a model for other countries on how they can work with America,” Noem said to reporters Wednesday.
Since taking office, Noem has frequently been front and center in efforts to highlight the immigration crackdown. She took part in immigration enforcement operations, rode horses with Border Patrol agents and was the face of a television campaign warning people in the country illegally to self-deport.
Noem’s Wednesday visit is part of a three-day trip. She’ll also travel to Colombia and Mexico.
The Venezuelans were removed from the US this month after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and said the US was being invaded by the Tren de Aragua gang. The Alien Enemies Act gives the president wartime powers and allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.
An appeals court Wednesday kept in place an order barring the administration from deporting more Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.
A central outstanding question about the deportees’ status is when and how they could ever be released from the prison, called the Terrorism Confinement Center, as they are not serving sentences. They no longer appear in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator and have not appeared before a judge in El Salvador.
The Trump administration refers to them as the “worst of the worst” but hasn’t identified who was deported or provided evidence that they’re gang members.
Relatives of some of the deportees have categorically denied any gang affiliation. The Venezuelan government and a group called the Families of Immigrants Committee in Venezuela hired a lawyer to help free those held in El Salvador. A lawyer for the firm, which currently represents about 30 Venezuelans, said they aren’t gang members and have no criminal records.
The US government has acknowledged that many do not have such records.
Flights were in the air March 15 when a federal judge issued a verbal order temporarily barring the deportations and ordered planes to return to the US
The Trump administration has argued that the judge’s verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed and that it couldn’t apply to flights that had already left the US
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that about 261 people were deported on the flights, including 137 under the Alien Enemies Act.
Bukele opened the prison in 2023 as he made the Central American country’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his fight against crime. The facility has eight sprawling pavilions and can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell can fit 65 to 70 prisoners.
Prisoners can’t have visitors. There are no workshops or educational programs.
El Salvador hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019, so the Venezuelans imprisoned there do not have consular support from their government.
Video released by El Salvador’s government after the deportees’ arrival showed men exiting airplanes onto an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down.
They were later shown at the prison kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform — knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs — and placed in cells.
For three years, El Salvador has been operating under a state of emergency that suspends fundamental rights as Bukele wages an all-out assault on the country’s powerful street gangs. During that time, some 84,000 people have been arrested, accused of gang ties and jailed, often without due process.
Bukele offered to hold US deportees in the prison when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited in February.
At the prison Wednesday, El Salvador Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro showed Noem a cell holding Salvadorans he said had been there since the prison opened. “No one expects that these people can go back to society and behave,” he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held
https://arab.news/nwk3q
Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held
- About a dozen prisoners were lined up by guards near the front of their cell and told to remove their T-shirts and face masks
- Kristi Noem: ‘Know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people’
Elon Musk hands out $1 million payments after Wisconsin Supreme Court declines request to stop him
- which will determine the ideological makeup of a court likely to decide key issues in a perennial battleground state
- The race which will determine the ideological makeup of a court likely to decide key issues in a perennial battleground state
GREEN BAY, Wisconsin: Elon Musk gave out $1 million checks on Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group, ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization.”
“It’s a super big deal,” he told a roughly 2,000-person crowd in Green Bay on Sunday night, taking the stage in a yellow cheesehead hat. “I’m not phoning it in. I’m here in person.”
Musk and groups he supports have spent more than $20 million to help conservative favorite Brad Schimel in Tuesday’s race, which will determine the ideological makeup of a court likely to decide key issues in a perennial battleground state. Musk has increasingly become the center of the contest, with liberal favorite Susan Crawford and her allies protesting Musk and what they say is the influence he wants to have on the court.
“I think this will be important for the future of civilization,” he said. “It’s that’s significant.”
He noted that the state high court may well take up redistricting of congressional districts, which could ultimately affect which party controls the US House.
“And if the (Wisconsin) Supreme Court is able to redraw the districts, they will gerrymander the district and deprive Wisconsin of two seats on the Republican side,” Musk said. “Then they will try to stop all the government reforms we are getting done for you, the American people.”
A unanimous state Supreme Court on Sunday refused to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over the checks to two voters, a ruling that came just minutes before the planned start of the rally.
Two lower courts had already rejected the legal challenge by Democrat Josh Kaul, who argues that Musk’s offer violates a state law. “Wisconsin law prohibits offering anything of value to induce anyone to vote,” Kaul argued in his filing. “Yet, Elon Musk did just that.”
But the state Supreme Court, which is currently controlled 4-3 by liberal justices, declined to take the case as an original action. The court gave no rationale for its decision.
Kaul had no immediate comment on the court’s order.
Musk’s attorneys argued in filings with the court that Musk was exercising his free speech rights with the giveaways and any attempt to restrict that would violate both the Wisconsin and US constitutions.
The payments are “intended to generate a grassroots movement in opposition to activist judges, not to expressly advocate for or against any candidate,” Musk’s attorneys argued in court filings.
Musk’s political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the presidential election last year, offering to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second amendments. A judge in Pennsylvania said prosecutors failed to show the effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue through Election Day.
Liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court. All four liberal justices have endorsed Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, the Democratic-backed candidate.
Musk’s attorneys, about four hours before the rally was to begin, asked that two liberal justices who have campaigned for Crawford — Jill Karofsky and Rebecca Dallet — recuse themselves from the case. His attorneys argued their work for Crawford creates “the specter of inappropriate bias.” If they did recuse, that would leave the court with a 3-2 conservative majority.
Both justices rejected the request and said they would spell out their reasons why at a later date.
One of the court’s conservative justices has endorsed Schimel, who wore a “Make America Great Again” hat while campaigning Sunday.
Schimel said in a national television interview that he does not control “any of the spending from any outside group, whether it’s Elon Musk or anyone else” and that all Trump asked was whether he would “reject activist judges” and follow the law.
“That’s exactly what I’ve committed to anybody, whether it’s President Trump, Elon Musk or any donors and donors or supporters or voters in Wisconsin. That’s my commitment,” Schimel told “Fox News Sunday.”
The contest has shattered national spending records for a judicial election, with more than $81 million in spending.
It comes as Wisconsin’s highest court is expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting rules that could affect the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election in the state.
France’s far right leader Le Pen faces verdict that could end presidential hopes
- The far-right leader is accused of engaging in an alleged fake jobs scam at the EU parliament
- Prosecutors have asked the court to issue her with both a jail sentence and a ban from holding public office
PARIS: A French court on Monday will rule in the trial of far-right leader Marine Le Pen over an alleged fake jobs scam at the EU parliament, a verdict which could ruin her chances of standing in the next presidential elections in two years.
Three-time presidential candidate Le Pen, who scents her best-ever chance to win the French presidency in 2027, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
But prosecutors in the case, which also targets other top National Rally (RN) officials, have asked the court to issue Le Pen with both a jail sentence and a ban from holding public office.
The latter should come into force immediately even if she appeals, according to the demand made by prosecutors last year, essentially disqualifying her from the presidential polls in two years if the court follows the request.
Le Pen said in a piece for the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper published on Sunday that the verdict gives the “judges the right of life or death over our movement.”
But referring to her potential immediate barring from standing for office, she added: “I do not think that they will go that far.”
As well as a five-year ban on holding office, prosecutors asked that Le Pen be given five years in prison — with three suspended and the two years potentially served outside of jail with a bracelet — and a 300,000 euro ($324,000) fine.
With her RN emerging as the single largest party in parliament after the 2024 legislative elections, Le Pen believes she has the momentum to finally take the Elysee in 2027 on the back of public concern over immigration and the cost of living.
Polls currently predict she would easily top the first round of voting and make the run-off.
If successful in 2027, she could join a growing number of hard- and far-right leaders around the world ranging from Giorgia Meloni in Italy to Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Should she be condemned, waiting in the wings is her protege and RN party leader Jordan Bardella, just 29, who is not under investigation in the case.
Bardella last week became the first RN party leader to visit Israel, invited by the government to address a conference on the fight against anti-Semitism in a trip denounced by opponents as hypocrisy.
But there are doubts even within the party over the so-called “Plan B” and whether he has the experience for a presidential campaign.
Le Pen took over as head of the then-National Front (FN) in 2011 but rapidly took steps toward making the party an electoral force and shaking off the controversial legacy of its co-founder and her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year and who was often accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments.
She renamed it the National Rally and embarked on a policy known as “dediabolization” (de-demonization) with the stated aim of making it acceptable to a wider range of voters.
Political death
Besides Le Pen, the RN is also in the dock and risks a fine of 4.3 million euros ($4.6 million), less than half of which would be suspended.
A total of 24 people are on trial, including nine former members of the European Parliament and their 12 parliamentary assistants.
A shocked Le Pen said after the prosecutors’ demands were announced that they were seeking “my political death” and accused them of denying the French a free choice at the next elections.
But prosecutors have insisted there has been no “harassment” of the RN.
They accuse the party of easing pressure on its own finances by using all of the 21,000-euro monthly allowance to which MEPs were entitled to pay “fictitious” parliamentary assistants, who actually worked for the party.
And prosecutors argue its “organized” nature was “strengthened” when Marine Le Pen took over as party leader in 2011.
According to an Ifop poll published by the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Le Pen would win 34-37 percent in the first round of the next presidential elections. Her fate in the run-off second round would likely depend on whether all her opponents united to vote against her.
But with President Emmanuel Macron unable to stand again, it is far from clear who the strongest candidate will be from the center and traditional right to succeed him.
One possible hopeful, powerful Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, said in November while still a backbencher that it would be “profoundly shocking” if Le Pen could not stand.
Advancing Trump agenda depends on spending cuts, says conservative Republican senator
- Johnson wants to scale back total federal outlays from an estimated $7 trillion this year to a $4.4 trillion level seen in 2019
- Several Senate Republicans want far larger reductions than the House target to pay for the Trump agenda and address the $36.6 trillion US debt
WASHINGTON: A prominent conservative senator predicted on Sunday that Donald Trump’s tax-cuts and immigration agenda will not advance in the US Senate unless the president and Republican leaders agree to slash federal spending to a level last seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republican Ron Johnson, a member of the Senate’s budget and tax-writing committees, said spending cuts need to exceed a $2 trillion target approved as part of the agenda by the House of Representatives. He called on Republican leaders to create a review process to find additional cuts in the federal budget.
“Without a commitment to returning to some reasonable pre-pandemic spending level, and a process to actually achieve it, I don’t think that’s going anywhere,” the Wisconsin Republican told the Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program.
“That’s going to be the discussion,” said Johnson, who wants to scale back total federal outlays from an estimated $7 trillion this year to a $4.4 trillion level seen in 2019.
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address this. This is our moment,” he said.
Johnson’s comments could spell trouble for Senate majority leader John Thune, who hopes to pass a revised version of the House plan this week.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate and need at least 50 votes to pass the agenda plan with Vice President JD Vance wielding a tie-breaking vote.
But congressional Republicans are widely split over spending cuts. Like Johnson, several Senate Republicans want far larger reductions than the House target to pay for the Trump agenda and address the $36.6 trillion US debt. Others are urging modest cuts to protect social safety-net programs including Medicaid health coverage for low-income Americans.
The House and Senate need to pass the same blueprint to unlock a parliamentary tool known as budget reconciliation, which would enable them to enact Trump’s agenda later this year by circumventing Democratic opposition in the Senate.
Last week, Trump pulled his nomination of Republican Representative Elize Stefanik as US ambassador to the United Nations, saying the move would help ensure his agenda’s success in the House, where Republicans hold a razor-thin 218-213 majority.
Declining Eid travel and spending dampen holiday spirit as soaring prices hit Indonesia
- Each year in Indonesia, nearly three-quarters of the population of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country travel for the annual homecoming known locally as “mudik” that is always welcomed with excitement
JAKARTA, Indonesia: The usual festive mood of Eid Al-Fitr holiday to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan has been subdued in Indonesia this year as people grapple with soaring prices for food, clothing and essential goods.
Consumer spending ahead of the biggest religious holiday for Muslims, which was celebrated on Sunday in Indonesia, has declined compared to the previous year, with a predicted slowdown in cash circulation due to fewer travelers.
Each year in Indonesia, nearly three-quarters of the population of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country travel for the annual homecoming known locally as “mudik” that is always welcomed with excitement.
People pour out of major cities to return to villages to celebrate the holiday with prayers, feasts and family gatherings. Flights are overbooked and anxious relatives weighed down with boxes of gifts form long lines at bus and train stations for the journey
But this year the Transportation Ministry said Eid travelers reached 146 million people, a 24 percent drop from last year’s 194 million travelers.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry projects that money circulation during Eid will reach 137.97 trillion rupiah ($8.33 billion), down from 157.3 trillion last year. The weakening purchasing power is also reflected in Bank Indonesia’s Consumer Confidence Index which dipped to 126.4 in February from 127.2 in January.
Bhima Yudistira, executive director of the Center for Economic and Law Studies, or Celios, said those trends indicate the economy is under strain, driven by economic hardship, coupled with currency depreciation and mass layoffs in manufacturing.
“These have weakened both corporate earnings and workers’ incomes that suppress consumer spending,” Yudistira said, adding he “expects a less vibrant festive season.”
He said the festive spirit has been stifled by harsh economic realities, as soaring prices and dwindling incomes force residents to prioritize survival over celebration.
Traditionally household consumption is a key driver of Indonesia’s GDP. It contributed over 50 percent to the economy last year, helping push annual growth to 5.11 percent. However, consumer spending in 2025 is expected to be more subdued, Yudistira said.
Despite the downturn, the government remains optimistic that the Ramadan and Eid momentum will support economic growth in the first quarter of 2025.
“Eid usually boosts the economy through increased spending,” Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto said ahead of the Islamic holiday.
The government recently introduced incentives to stimulate economic activity, including airfare and toll road fee discounts, nationwide online shopping events, direct cash assistance for 16 million households, electricity bill reductions for low-consumption customers, and tax exemptions for labor-intensive sectors.
“With these programs in place, the government hopes to sustain consumer spending and support economic stability,” Hartarto said.
The situation has also affected Endang Trisilowati, a mother of four, who said her family had to scale down their festivities budget.
“Honestly, the economic hardship is affecting us,” Trisilowati said. She described how she used to cook different dishes every Eid and invite neighbors, but now she can only afford a simple meal for her family.
“Many have resorted to just finding a way to eat on that festivity, but the spirit is low,” she said.
Trump warns Zelensky not to back off minerals deal
WASHINGTON : US President Donald Trump warned on Sunday that his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky would have “big problems” if he goes cold on a deal to sign over mineral rights.
Trump is trying to broker a ceasefire between Ukraine and its Russian invader, and has been pushing Zelensky to sign an agreement to give US firms access to Ukrainian rare earth mineral.
Briefing reporters on his Air Force Once jet, Trump said: “I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. And if he does that he’s got some problems. Big, big problems.”
