The Biden administration‘s handling of immigration was disastrous, and his policies contributed to a border crisis so severe that even the New York Times acknowledged its seriousness. This was a top issue for voters, so no one can deny that President Donald Trump was elected with a clear mandate to secure the border and stop the crisis, which, to his credit, he has done. But Trump has done more than just end former President Joe Biden’s broken border policies and greatly reduce the flow of illegal immigration. The president has gone beyond immigration enforcement and treated illegal and legal immigrants alike in a way that violates their basic human and constitutional rights.

At least, that’s the inescapable takeaway of a new report from Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies David J. Bier. He analyzed the list of immigrants the Trump administration has sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador and found that many of the people the federal government sent to this dystopian hellhole at U.S. taxpayer expense never actually broke our immigration laws — and that, regardless, our government has egregiously violated their basic human rights.

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Per Bier, dozens of the Venezuelan immigrants we’ve sent to this prison in El Salvador entered the U.S. with permission from the Biden administration, and some even as legally sanctioned refugees or temporary visa holders. Yet the Trump administration has nonetheless sent them without charges or trial to indefinite detainment at U.S. taxpayer expense in horrifying conditions. 

The details Bier lays out are incredibly damning.

“The US government asserts that they are ‘criminal terrorists’ who are ‘confirmed’ members of a criminal organization known as Tren de Aragua (TdA). Investigations by the New York Times, Bloomberg, and CBS News have all found that few of the imprisoned men have any criminal record,” Bier writes. “All these legal immigrants denied gang membership, and only two appear to have had a US criminal conviction of any kind, both for minor drug offenses. About two dozen of the legal immigrants were detained immediately at the port of entry where they were authorized to seek entry, so there is no possibility that they demonstrated any gang ties or committed any crimes inside the United States.”

That’s right: Many of the immigrants, both legal and illegal, we’ve sent to a horrific prison in El Salvador have no criminal record, weren’t charged with any crime, and are only connected to gangs through the loosest of “evidence” such as tattoos.

This is a moral abomination. These people weren’t “deported.” They were sent to a foreign nation, not their home country, and imprisoned at U.S. taxpayer expense in horrific conditions. To imprison someone without charges, let alone a trial proving his guilt, is a blatant and unambiguous violation of the basic human right to due process, as well as the constitutional right to due process that both legal and illegal immigrants in the U.S. absolutely have (Even the late, iconic conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia agreed that illegal immigrants have some due process rights under our Constitution).

BORDER CROSSINGS DOWN 99%, EVEN FEWER HEADED TO US

None of this was necessary. The Trump administration could have simply deported these people or actually charged them with a crime and then pursued their imprisonment. But instead, in some kind of sick show of force, it decided to make a mockery out of human rights and send a chilling message to the entire world that even if you come to the U.S. legally, you might end up in a gulag somewhere with no meaningful process or recourse. That will surely do wonders for tourism! 

Yes, Trump was elected with a mandate to secure the southern border and deport millions of illegal immigrants. But he simply didn’t have to take the kinds of draconian, authoritarian steps we’ve seen as the administration disappears people to El Salvador. That the Trump administration has chosen this horrific, overzealous approach will stain its legacy of border successes.

Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.