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
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Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR
T recalls the terror she felt upon her deportation to El Salvador from the U.S. late last year.
“It was traumatizing, I was so scared,” she told NPR in Spanish. Currently back in immigration detention in the U.S., T only wanted her first initial used due to fears for her safety from Salvadoran authorities.
Having fled her home country nearly five years ago to escape harassment and threats as a transgender woman, T faced further harassment upon her return. Salvadoran authorities at the airport demanded she strip for a tattoo inspection.
“They told me that if my tattoos indicated gang affiliation, we were going directly to CECOT,” T said, referencing El Salvador’s maximum-security prison.
Authorities also investigated her criminal record and gang affiliations, finding none.
Though allowed to return to her parents’ home, she was warned that local officers might stop and question her at any time.
“I worried I was going to be detained,” T said, noting she scarcely left the house for a month due to fear of harassment or arrest.
T’s experience is not unique.
Since Trump assumed office in January 2025, over 9,000 Salvadorans have been deported from the U.S. to El Salvador, according to a March 2026 report by Human Rights Watch.
NPR’s investigations reveal that many deportees from the U.S. vanish into El Salvador’s prisons upon landing or shortly after. They are often held incommunicado, isolated from family and legal counsel for extended periods.
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
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AP/El Salvador presidential press office via AP
State of exception
The rising number of detainees stems from a March 2022 decree by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. Following a gang-related killing spree, he declared a “state of exception,” temporarily suspending certain rights.
Initially intended to last 30 days as per the Salvadoran constitution, Bukele has continuously renewed this emergency order, effectively creating a police state for four years.
This crackdown has transformed El Salvador from the world’s murder capital to a country with a lower homicide rate than the U.S., but it now also has the highest incarceration rate globally.
Since 2022, tens of thousands have been arrested under the state of exception. According to El PaĆs, nearly 92,000 individuals have been detained, with 64% identified as gang members by local intelligence before the emergency powers were enacted.
