McGovern, 17 Members of Congress Tell Secretaries Rubio and Noem to Address Horrific Prison Conditions in El Salvador

WASHINGTON-Today,Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, along with 17 Members of the House of Representatives, have written a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem asking them to address appalling conditions in Salvadoran prisons that violate international human rights standards and cease any further rendition of persons from the United States to prisons on El Salvador.

***Text of Letter Here (PDF)***

"These prison conditions represent not only cruelty that threatens human dignity, but also serious violations by El Salvador of its obligations under international human rights law," wrote the lawmakers in their letter. "Moreover, the United States, as party to the Convention Against Torture, is obligated to not send a person to a country where there are 'substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.'"

Last spring, the Trump Administration sent some 280 men, of Venezuelan and Salvadoran origin, to be held in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, International human rights monitors have documented horrific conditions in prisons across El Salvador. First-hand accounts from Kilmar Ábrego García, a legal resident of the United States, and others released from CECOT include accounts of psychological and physical abuse, including beatings, sleep deprivation, isolation, deprivation of medical treatment, and sexual assault.

Specifically, the letter asks the Secretaries to:

· Undertake an immediate and transparent review of prison conditions in El Salvador;

· Demand the Salvadoran government to give U.S. diplomats access to the prisons;

· Ask the Salvadoran government to allow access to UN human rights observers; and

· Cease further rendition of persons from the U.S. to El Salvador for the purpose of detention in a prison there.

"The United States should not be complicit in the torture of incarcerated individuals. Nor should it remain silent when a government of a country, especially one that the United States is paying for the express purpose of housing such deportees, repeatedly fails to meet minimum standards for humane prison conditions," conclude the Members of Congress in their letter.