ICYMI: 60 Minutes Report Reveals Indiscriminate Brutality of Mass Disappearances

Washington, D.C. –  On Sunday night, 60 Minutes aired a searing report on the mass removals of Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. The report revealed that the majority (75%) of men had no criminal record—yet were profiled based on tattoos and decades-old social media evidence. The segment also exposed the cruelty of these operations, showing detainees with shaved heads, violently searched and manhandled inside what reporter Cecilia Vega called “the hardest of hardcore prisons.” All of it, the report made clear, is part of a deliberate campaign to instill fear and justify mass disappearances through spectacle and misinformation.

WATCH THE FULL REPORT

Key highlights from the segment include:

• Majority of Men Jailed Have No Criminal Record: 75% of the men deported were found to have no criminal history, despite the administration’s baseless assertions otherwise.
• Legal Oversight Systematically Undermined: These deportations were carried out under the Alien Enemies Act, sidestepping judicial review and due process protections. It remains unclear whether the administration will comply with court orders in this case and others.
• Fundamental Constitutional Protections at Risk: The ACLU’s Lee Gelernt cited a judge who stated that “Nazi’s got better treatment” than the men forcibly transferred to this foreign prison. By denying due process, the administration is dismantling long-standing legal norms and protections that are foundational to American democracy.

The segment highlighted these realities through the story of Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old gay Venezuelan makeup artist who fled anti-LGBTQ persecution and had no criminal record. DHS labeled tattoos honoring his parents as gang-related and removed him despite his strong asylum claim. His family only discovered his fate when TIME magazine released photos showed him sobbing, head shaved, inside the prison.

“It’s horrifying to see someone we know as a sweet, funny artist in the most horrible conditions I could imagine,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, President of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which is representing Romero.

As the Trump administration continues to double down on their indiscriminate deportations, recent polling demonstrates a majority of Americans strongly oppose deporting immigrants who have not been convicted to El Salvador without due process. Yet the administration continues to invoke the state secrets privilege to conceal evidence and block legal accountability. Officials like Tom Homan insist only dangerous criminals are being removed—yet internal government documents contradict that claim. As 60 Minutes made painfully clear, this is not targeted enforcement but a dangerous system of indiscriminate erasure, secrecy, and propaganda—where human lives are collateral.

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