A senior Trump administration official has visited a controversial mega-prison in El Salvador at the centre of a legal row over the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans from the US.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca on Wednesday, where the US recently deported 238 Venezuelans.
The Trump administration alleges the prisoners are gang members.
The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armoury and an isolation unit.
Pictures captured on the visit show inmates dressed in white T-shirts, packed into cells.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act on March 15 to swiftly deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, attempting to speed up removals with a law best known for its use to intern Japanese, Italian and German immigrants during World War Two.
US District Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked the deportations following a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union.
But the trip suggests that Trump will not back down on his immigration policy despite the injunction.
Activists have accused the US Government of sending the Venezuelans to a prison rife with human rights abuses while presenting little evidence that they were part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
Noem dodged questions by the press about if the Venezuelan deportees could ever be brought back to the US if a court orders the administration to do so.
“We’re going to let the courts play out,” she told reporters following the visit.
Noem also toured an area holding some of the Venezuelans accused of being gang members.
Family members of many of the deported Venezuelan migrants deny the alleged gang ties.
Lawyers for one of the deportees, a Venezuelan professional soccer player and youth coach, said US officials had wrongly labelled him a gang member based on a tattoo of a crown meant to honour his favourite team, Real Madrid.
