Wrongfully Deported and Disappeared: The Story of Merwil Gutiérrez and the U.S.-El Salvador Death Camp Pipeline
In February 2025, 19-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker Merwil Gutiérrez was ripped from the safety of his Bronx neighborhood by ICE agents during a raid that even they admitted was a mistake. “No, he’s not the one,” one agent said. But the chilling response from another agent—“Take him anyway”—changed Merwil’s life forever.
Merwil was in the U.S. legally. He had no criminal record. He had a pending 2027 court date for his asylum case. But none of that mattered under Donald Trump’s revived use of the Alien Enemies Act, a centuries-old law now weaponized to round up and deport Venezuelan migrants en masse. Instead of being returned to his home country, Merwil was deported to El Salvador, where he was thrown into one of the most dangerous and secretive prisons on Earth: CECOT.
What is CECOT?
CECOT—the Terrorism Confinement Center—is a mega-prison built under Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose brutal crackdown on gangs has drawn international condemnation. The facility holds more than 40,000 inmates, often with no trial, no charges, and no release in sight.
It was built for spectacle. But behind the walls, extermination is happening.
Human rights monitors, journalists, and independent watchdogs have been barred from entry. Reports from families and former prison workers describe people wasting away from starvation, denied medical care, beaten until they stop moving, and even dying from untreated wounds and infections. Bodies are disappearing. Mass graves are suspected.
Merwil was sent there without trial, without explanation, without ever stepping foot in El Salvador as a resident. His only crime? Being Venezuelan in America during the Trump regime’s renewed war on migrants.
A Chilling Precedent for U.S. Detainees
If the United States government can deport a legal asylum-seeker to a foreign nation where he has no ties, and where mass state violence is ongoing—what does that mean for the rest of us?
This isn’t just about immigration. This is a test run of something much more sinister:
The outsourcing of incarceration and extermination
The erosion of due process protections for all “undesirables”
The normalization of political disappearances under the guise of security
This administration has built a system where no trial is needed to send you to die abroad. And they are doing it to teenagers.
Merwil Gutiérrez is not a criminal. He is not a gang member. He is not even Salvadoran. He is a symbol of what happens when a nation loses its moral compass and trades justice for fascism.
We Must Not Stay Silent
CECOT is not a prison. It is a death camp.
And the United States government is now complicit in its operation.
Sources:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/29/el-salvador-no-justice-mass-arrests
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/16/kilmar-abrego-garcia-congress-el-salvador-00295147
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/16/who-is-kilmar-abrego-garcia
https://people.com/ice-agents-arrested-wrong-teen-take-him-anyway-report-11715749