Democratic Rep. Mark Takano plans to introduce legislation on Thursday that would block future U.S. payments to the maximum security prison in El Salvador that holds some of the Trump administration’s highest-profile deportees.
The California lawmaker’s bill, first shared with NOTUS, stands little chance of becoming law. But it signals how central a role El Salvador has taken in President Donald Trump’s efforts to enforce a sweeping immigration agenda, and how Democrats are viewing that as a problem.
The bill aims to cut off all U.S. funding for the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a mega prison that’s faced allegations of human rights abuses. It’s also where the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly sent Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant who was returned to the U.S. from the country’s prison system to face charges, as well as Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a Texas man also deported despite a previous court order barring his removal.