Kristi Noem Warns Criminal Illegals After Touring El Salvador Mega-Prison

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is making it abundantly clear the days of open borders and unchecked criminal migration are numbered. During a high-profile visit to El Salvador this week, Noem toured the country’s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) a maximum-security prison known for housing some of the most violent gang members in the world, including recent deportees from the U.S. connected to Venezuela’s feared Tren de Aragua.

Noem stood in front of rows of tattoo-covered inmates packed into towering metal racks and delivered a blunt message to criminal illegal aliens still in the U.S.:

“LEAVE NOW,” she warned. “If you do not leave, we will hunt you down, arrest you, and you could end up in this El Salvadorian prison.”

This isn't just talk. Noem is taking the fight to the global stage partnering with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele and Justice Minister Héctor Gustavo Villatoro to expand cooperation in deporting gang members and criminal illegals back to Latin America.

In the video she posted to X, Noem didn’t mince words:

• “Do not come to our country illegally.”

• “You will be removed, and you will be prosecuted.”

• “This facility is one of the tools in our toolkit.”

And what a tool it is.

CECOT is a no-frills, hard-nosed mega-prison designed to do what leftist-run U.S. cities refuse to deter crime. With no education programs, no visitors, and minimal food rations, inmates are crammed up to 70 per cell into bleak concrete rooms 24 hours a day. Opened in 2023, it already holds 15,000 dangerous criminals, and it's built to handle 40,000.

According to Fox News, Bukele's government has offered to house U.S.-convicted criminals, including Americans, in the facility for a “relatively low” cost something the Biden administration has ignored, but Trump allies are taking seriously.

This prison tour follows a broader trend of strong Republican leadership confronting the illegal immigration crisis head-on while Biden continues to ignore the catastrophic consequences of his border policies:

• More than 10 million illegal border crossings since Biden took office.

• Over 169,000 criminal illegal immigrants have been arrested in the last three years.

• Cartel violence and gang activity are spilling into U.S. cities with deadly consequences.

Noem’s message is simple, and it’s what Americans have been desperate to hear: under Trump and conservative leadership, the era of coddling criminals is over. You break our laws, you face the consequences even if that means a one-way ticket to a concrete box in El Salvador.

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