Salvadoran Government Receives 238 Alleged Members Of Criminal Organizations 'Tren
Guards escort inmates allegedly linked to criminal organizations at CECOT on March 16, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador. Salvadoran Government via Getty Images

Hacked data shows that dozens more people were deported to El Salvador than previously disclosed, according to a new report.

Concretely, 404 Media detailed on Thursday that the people have not been publicly acknowledged by the Trump administration and experts monitoring the deportations say they don't know where the people are or their whereabouts.

The outlet recalled that CBS News published in March an "internal government list" of the people deported to the CECOT mega-prison. However, in May a hacker targeted GlobalX, the airline that operated the deportation flights, and shared the manifests with the outlet. They contain dozens of additional names.

"We have this list of people that the U.S. government has not formally acknowledged in any real way and we pretty much have no idea if they are in CECOT or someplace else, or whether they received due process," Michelle Brané, executive director of Together and Free, which has been working with the families of deportees, told the outlet. "We have not heard from these people's families, so I think perhaps even they don't know," she added.

404 Media noted that it is not confirmed whether the people were indeed on the flights. If it was the case, their whereabouts are unknown.

El Salvador has formally stated that legal custody of the migrants detained in prison remains with the United States, contradicting claims by the Trump administration that it no longer has authority over the individuals.

The declaration was part of a court filing submitted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier this month. The filing, presented by lawyers representing four migrant families, includes a Salvadoran government response to a United Nations inquiry that states: "The jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these people lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities," referring to the United States.

The migrants were taken under the Alien Enemies Act—a law invoked by the Trump administration to remove individuals it labeled national security threats. The U.S. is paying the Salvadoran government $6 million to detain them for one year.

Moreover, despite the claims, Trump administration officials were actively negotiating a prisoner swap involving those same detainees, a report by The New York Times from earlier this month revealed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions of United States Richard Grenell led parallel efforts to arrange a deal with Venezuela's authoritarian government, according to four people familiar with the talks. One proposal would have seen the exchange of the migrants for the release of 11 U.S. citizens and dozens of Venezuelan political prisoners held in Venezuela. The other offered to extend Chevron's license to operate in Venezuela.

According to the outlet, both teams negotiated with the same Venezuelan official, president of Venezuela's National Assembly Jorge Rodríguez, but the lack of coordination created confusion about who actually represented the U.S. administration. Ultimately, neither plan materialized.

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