A copy of a previously secret memo between the United States and El Salvador outlining a deal to house suspected gang members at a notorious mega-prison was made public Sept. 9.

The $4.67 million agreement appeared in a federal court disclosure. It's part of a lawsuit from a group of human rights organizations suing the administration over what it called an “unlawful and inhumane” campaign to “disappear people" to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT).

“The correspondence between the U.S. State Department and El Salvador confirms what we have long suspected: the Trump Administration did nothing to meaningfully ensure that individuals disappeared from the U.S. to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison were protected from torture, indefinite confinement or other abuses,” wrote Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, part of the coalition that released the file.

The administration had previously stated it paid El Salvador to house suspected gang members deported from the United States. But the details of the agreement had not been disclosed.

The agreement outlined specific exclusions for how the funds could be spent — and not spent. None of the money could be used to:

  • Encourage, mobilize or manage mass caravans headed toward the United States' southwest border.
  • Provide legal counseling on the asylum process or for attorneys in the United States
  • Be transferred to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
  • Lobby for or against abortion
  • Fund any programs “that do not comply” with President Donald Trump’s executive order on federal contractors and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

Democracy Forward also in a statement highlighted how the memo doesn't require El Salvador to refrain from “torturing, detaining people in indefinite confinement, or avoiding other abusive practices inside CECOT.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to questions about the memo's release.

The Salvadoran embassy in the United States didn't immediately respond to emailed questions about the agreement.

Agreement dated in March, after flights began

The agreement is dated March 22. That came a full week after the Trump administration began flying suspected Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador after invoking the Alien Enemies Act on March 14.

On March 15, the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward sued the administration over a group of Venezuelan men who were about to be deported. That’s when U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington ordered any flights en route to turn back to American soil. They continued to San Salvador in defiance of the ruling.

El Salvador and its young president, Nayib Bukele, were key to Trump’s campaign promises to deport thousands of alleged gang members and other criminals after he took office.

After he was elected in 2019, Bukele became a favorite of U.S. conservatives for a crackdown on gangs that has put as many as 80,000 Salvadorans behind bars under a three-year-old state of emergency.

Bukele has called himself “the world’s coolest dictator,” and he’s won praise from Trump for his tough stance on the MS-13 criminal gang. A USA TODAY investigation earlier this year showed that Bukele had himself benefitted from corrupt deals with MS-13 during his rise to power.

On March 16, Bukele joked about order and flights on social media. “Oopsie… Too late,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, video posted by the Salvadoran government showed detainees stripped and having their heads shaved before being frog-marched in handcuffs and chains at their feet and waist into the prison. Scores of armed guards in riot gear formed a tunnel as they were led inside the prison.

“The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us,” Bukele said in a March 16 X post with video showing the men being taken into the prison.

Bukele has said that visitation, recreation and education aren’t allowed at the prison. He has posted other videos of how roughly prisoners are treated. The prison's conditions have raised legal, ethical and humanitarian concerns, critics and constitutional experts have said.

Trump thanked Bukele for his support to “combat illegal immigration” and to use the prison to house alleged gang members, according to a letter posted by Bukele. Four days after the agreement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also visited CECOT.

The next month, in April, Trump hosted Bukele at the White House.

“It’s pretty incredible how in four pages you can conspire to commit international crimes,” Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal, a leading Salvadoran human rights organization, said of the agreement.

Noting that almost none of the deported Venezuelans had been charged or convicted in U.S. or Salvadoran courts, Bullock said the agreement “implicitly convicts and sentences them, and President Bukele is the jailer.”

“It’s especially striking how Bukele, the president of a nation of migrants, is assisting in a campaign of terror against migrants in the U.S.,” he said.

In July, Cristosal left El Salvador after its lead anti-corruption investigator, Ruth López, was arrested and charged with embezzlement and illegal enrichment. Lopez is being held in a maximum security prison awaiting trial, Bullock said.

Prison flashpoint in case over Kilmar Abrego Garcia

CECOT and the agreement became a flashpoint in the controversy over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported Maryland man who was among those whisked to the prison in March. Detainees have alleged torture and beatings inside CECOT since their release.

Abrego Garcia says he experienced “severe beatings” and psychological torture at the high-security prison, according to a court filing.

Trump administration officials previously said they had no control over Abrego Garcia's custody despite also saying they had a $6 million agreement with the Salvadoran government to house hundreds of migrants accused of having gang ties. Bukele also said Abrego Garcia wouldn't leave the prison.

Federal court rulings ordered Abrego Garcia's return to the United States, where he now faces criminal charges.

On July 18, more than 250 of the Venezuelans were freed from CECOT in a prisoner exchange. Venezuela released 10 U.S. citizens and lawful residents.

Contributing: Dan Morrison, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump administration's $4.7M contract for El Salvador prison revealed

Reporting by Nick Penzenstadler and Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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