Human rights groups are warning about the treatment of Salvadorans deported from the U.S., who are being held in dangerous prisons under a police state established by President Nayib Bukele. This situation has persisted for four years due to a 30-day suspension of rights.
Key points
Salvadorans deported from the U.S. are trapped in prisons.
President Nayib Bukele has extended a 30-day suspension of rights.
The situation has persisted for four years.
Human rights groups are raising alarms over deportees' treatment.
Deportees face a police state in El Salvador.
Mentioned in this story
Nayib BukeleEl Salvador
For the past 4 years, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has extended a 30-day suspension of rights, effectively creating a police-state that keeps Salvadoran deportees from the U.S. trapped in the Central American country's notorious prisons.
For the past four years, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has extended a 30-day suspension of rights, effectively creating a police state that keeps Salvadoran deportees from the U.S. trapped in the Central American country's notorious prisons.
Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR
Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR
T remembers the fear she felt when she was deported to her home country of El Salvador from the U.S. late last year.
"It was traumatizing, I was so scared," she told NPR in Spanish. T, who is back in immigration detention in the U.S. now, asked to be identified only by her first initial out of fear for her safety from Salvadoran officials.
T fled her country nearly five years ago, because as a transgender woman, she says she was constantly harassed and threatened by menin her neighborhood. Now T says she felt harassed again by Salvadoran authorities at the airport who asked her to strip naked as they checked her for tattoos.
"They told me that if my tattoos made reference to gang affiliation, we were going directly to CECOT," T said, referring to the notorious maximum security mega-prison in El Salvador.
Authorities, she said, also checked if she had a criminal record, or affiliations with any gangs. She did not.
She was allowed to go to her parents' homebut was told local officers could stop and question her at any time.
"I worried I was going to be detained," T said.
She barely left her parents' home for a month out of fear of being harassed, or questionedand detained again by local authorities.
T is not alone in her situation.
Since Trump took office in January 2025, more than 9,000 Salvadorans have been deported from the U.S. to El Salvador, according to a March 2026 report by Human Rights Watch.
Q&A
What is the current situation for Salvadorans deported from the U.S.?
Salvadorans deported from the U.S. are being held in notorious prisons under a police state established by President Nayib Bukele.
Who is responsible for the suspension of rights in El Salvador?
The suspension of rights in El Salvador has been extended by President Nayib Bukele for the past four years.
How are human rights groups responding to the treatment of deported Salvadorans?
Human rights groups are raising alarms about the dangerous conditions faced by Salvadorans deported from the U.S. and held in prisons.
What are the implications of the police state in El Salvador for deportees?
The police state in El Salvador creates a climate of fear and danger for deportees, limiting their rights and safety.
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NPR's reporting reveals that migrants deported from the U.S. routinely disappear into El Salvador's prisons the moment they land or in the weeks that follow. Many are held incommunicado, cut off from family and lawyers for months, even years.
This 2025 photo, provided to the press by the El Salvador presidential press office, shows Venezuelan deportees from the U.S. in the notorious CECOT prison. Venezuelans have since been released, but many Salvadoran nationals deported to their home country remain in detention.
This 2025 photo, provided to the press by the El Salvador presidential press office, shows Venezuelan deportees from the U.S. in the notorious CECOT prison. Venezuelans have since been released, but many Salvadoran nationals deported to their home country remain in detention.
AP/El Salvador presidential press office via AP
AP/El Salvador presidential press office via AP
State of exception
The growing numbers of detainees are a result of a March 2022 edict by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. He implemented a temporary suspension of rights, known as the state of exception, after a weekend killing spree by gangs in the country.
The crackdown has taken El Salvador from being the murder capital of the world, to a country with a lower homicide rate than the U.S. It has also led El Salvador to become the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Tens of thousands have been arrested since the state of exception was imposed in 2022. The Spanish newspaper El País, citing official data, estimates it's nearly 92,000 people.64% of those arrested had been identified as gang members by El Salvador's intelligence before the emergency power was implemented.
Jennifer Kesselberg Dubon has not spoken with her husband since he was deported from the U.S. to El Salvador in 2023, where he was imprisoned on suspicion of associating with gangs, something Dubon denies. "In all honestly, he may be dead."
Jennifer Kesselberg Dubon has not spoken with her husband since he was deported from the U.S. to El Salvador in 2023, where he was imprisoned on suspicion of associating with gangs, something Dubon denies. "In all honestly, he may be dead."
Jennifer Kesselberg Dubon
Jennifer Kesselberg Dubon
Salvador Eduardo Dubon Miranda didn't have a criminal record, but wasaccused by Salvadoran police of associating with gangs weeks after being deported from the U.S. in 2023, by the Biden administration.
His wife, Jennifer Kesselberg Dubon, told NPR that her husband wasn't affiliated with any gangs. She is a U.S. citizen living in Nebraska. She said she hasn't been able to communicate at all with her husband since he was imprisoned.
"My husband was really scrawny when he went in there … and mentally he doesn't do well being confined," Kesselberg Dubon said, holding back tears. "In all honesty, he may be dead."
Human rights organizations have decried the state of exception, which they say has led to widespread human rights violations of detainees, opposition members and others,including returning migrants.
Bukele, an ally of President Trump, has supported the U.S.' aggressive crackdown on immigration, even temporarily housing hundreds of Venezuelan deporteesfrom the U.S. in CECOT as part of a $6 million agreement with the Trump administration.
A spokesperson for Bukele did not respond to NPR's requests for comment regarding the allegations of human rights abuses, and other violations under the state of exception.
Deportees who aren't imprisoned face challenges
Even those who are not immediately jailed face huge challenges, including economic ones, upon their return to their home country.
"It's hard to get work. Sometimes potential employers are suspicious of deportees," says Sarah Bishop, a professor at Baruch College who researches the post-deportation experiences of Salvadorans. She says some of the deportees still owe money and struggle to pay off their debt to smugglers who helped them cross the border illegally into the U.S.
"Some of the individuals that we have spoken to who have been returned to El Salvador during the state of exception are afraid to leave their homes for fear of police violence," Bishop said.
Professor Bishop is following 25 men who have been sent home from the U.S.over the last four years. The vast majority, 19 in all, she says "were incarcerated upon or following their arrival."
Bishop said it's important to note that the U.S. and Salvadoran governments share information regarding the criminal records of deportees, the arrest history, and even unverified suspicions of gang involvement.
"A deportee in El Salvador may be arrested for nothing more than having been arrested before in the United States or El Salvador," Bishop said.
'I don't know where they are'
Under the state of exception, incarceration often means losing contact with the outside world, including family members.
This is way too familiar for Grace, a woman whose brother was detained upon his deportation to El Salvador in 2025. He had been charged with statutory rape years earlier in El Salvador, before he moved to the U.S. However, he was acquitted in 2021, according to court documents from El Salvador.
Grace asked NPR to identify her by her nickname because she still lives in El Salvador and fears for her safety.
She said her brother is now being accused of collaborating with gangs, though she said her brother has no involvement with gangs.
"They are detained under the pretext that they are under investigation, but there are no charges," Grace said in Spanish.
She said she last saw her brother as he was being processed into prison in October, and has not heard or seen from him since.
Jonathan Levy, an attorney and the director of pro bono programs at the immigrant rights organization American Gateways, represents about half a dozen Salvadoran deportees.
He says the U.S. government must evaluate the likelihood a detainee will be tortured if they are sent back to a specific country. In the case of El Salvador, Levy said, if they are thrown in jail by the government, there is "evidence that some people who are sent there are only getting out deceased."
President Donald Trump has maintained a friendly relationship with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, hosting him at the White House and at the Shield of the Americas Summit, Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Trump National Doral Miami in Doral, Fla.
President Donald Trump has maintained a friendly relationship with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, hosting him at the White House and at the Shield of the Americas Summit, Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Trump National Doral Miami in Doral, Fla.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The Department of Homeland Security declined torespond to questions about whether it is aware of the disappearances or concerned about the state of exception, and referred all questions to the government of El Salvador.
"I'm certainly not in contact with any of them, I don't know how they are doing, I don't know if they are alive, I don't know where they are," Levy said.
Levy says their cases are still fighting for "in the hope of winning the case and creating some good precedent for future cases."
If an appeal in U.S. courts is won, the federal government must bring the deportee back. That's the case with T, the transgender woman who is now back in a U.S. detentioncenter appealing her deportation order.
Human rights groups and attorneys representing deportees, as well as their family members, say their only hope at this point is for Bukele to restore due process in El Salvador.
Only then, they say, will they have a chance to learn where their loved ones are and how they are doing.
