60 Minutes: Trump DHS ‘Deflected All Questions’ About ‘Brutal’ El Salvador Prison — Even After Report Was Delayed a Month

60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said the Department of Homeland Security “deflected all questions” about abuses at the notorious El Salvadoran CECOT prison, even after having an extra month to respond after CBS News chief Bari Weiss originally spiked the story.

Weiss pulled the story right before it was set to air on Dec. 21 because she said, “we do not present the administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT.” At the time, Alfonsi slammed the decision as “political.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that Alfonsi “flew from Texas to DC on Thursday to interview a Trump administration official. But the interview ‘did not materialize.'” The report finally ran Sunday, but without substantial input from the Trump administration.

After detailing the horrific torture and abuses suffered by prisoners, some with no criminal records, Alfonsi reported, “The Department of Homeland Security declined our request for an interview and referred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador. The government there did not respond to our request.”

Those comments echoed what she said at the top of the segment. Alfonsi said CBS made “several attempts to interview” key Trump officials but were denied each time.

Later in the segment, Alfonsi reiterated, “60 Minutes has repeatedly asked the Department of Homeland Security for the complete records and criminal backgrounds of all 252 Venezuelan men the U.S. Sent to CECOT. It would not provide them.”

Alfonsi continued, “This past week, DHS told us, ‘We are confident in our law enforcement’s intelligence and we are not going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane.'”

“Because of this, we relied on the ICE data that is available for our reporting. Of the 252 men, that data shows that 33 had been convicted of a crime in the U.S.. Again, eight of them for violent or potentially violent crimes. Another 70 had pending charges, but we don’t know the nature of those charges because DHS refuses to share that information,” Alfonsi said.

She added, “In a statement to 60 Minutes, the White House said ‘President Trump is committed to keeping his promises to the American people by removing dangerous criminal and terrorist illegal aliens.'”

The segment also included a soundbite from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt from 2025.

Leavitt said the men deported by President Donald Trump were “heinous monsters, rapists, murders, kidnappers, sexual assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country and they must be held accountable.”

Human Rights Watch director Juan Pappier contested those claims. Pappier told 60 Minutes about half of the men had “no criminal history” and only eight men were convicted for a violent or potentially violent crime; he said HRW’s data was based on ICE’s records.

“The statements of the administrations are available in full online,” Alfonsi concluded. “DHS deflected all questions about abuse allocations at Cecot, saying the men were ‘not under U.S. jurisdiction while in El Salvador.'”

Watch the clip above via 60 Minutes on CBS.

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