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Part 2: "The Price List" - How America Became a Human Trafficking Broker

Part 2: "The Price List" - How America Became a Human Trafficking Broker

The Business Model

The Trump administration has transformed immigration enforcement into a literal marketplace for human beings. Documents and financial records reveal a systematic operation where the U.S. government pays foreign countries specific amounts per person to accept deportees, who are then subjected to forced labor in conditions that international human rights organizations describe as torture.

El Salvador: The Crown Jewel of the Operation

The most extensive arrangement involves El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison, a facility designed to hold 40,000 inmates in conditions that violate every international standard for humane treatment.

The Financial Structure:

  • Initial agreement: $6 million for one year of "services"
  • Per-person rate: Approximately $20,000 per deportee
  • Total approved funding: $15 million
  • Additional "maintenance fees" and volume discounts negotiated

What the Money Buys: The U.S. isn't just paying for detention—it's explicitly paying for forced labor. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele thanked the Trump administration for "the forced labor that will be extracted," stating this would make the prison system "self-sustainable."

The Forced Labor Component

Deportees are enrolled in El Salvador's "Zero Idleness" program, which requires more than 40,000 incarcerated people to:

  • Build infrastructure
  • Manufacture commercial goods
  • Harvest agricultural products
  • Work without compensation under threat of punishment

This isn't rehabilitation—it's slavery with a government contract.

The Conditions

Human Rights Watch and other organizations have documented the reality inside CECOT:

  • 23.5 hours per day in overcrowded cells
  • 80-100 people per cell designed for far fewer
  • No mattresses, sheets, or pillows
  • No visits, phone calls, or outside contact
  • Systematic torture and abuse
  • No educational or rehabilitation programs
  • Indefinite detention with no possibility of release

The Victims

CBS News investigation found that 75% of the 238 deportees sent to CECOT had no criminal records. Among them:

  • Andry Hernandez Romero, a 31-year-old makeup artist and theater performer who fled Venezuela due to persecution for being gay
  • Asylum seekers who had legal proceedings pending
  • People whose only "crime" was having tattoos or wearing certain clothing

Expanding the Network

El Salvador is just the beginning. The administration has established or is negotiating similar arrangements with:

Currently Operational:

  • Rwanda: $100,000 paid for one Iraqi citizen, agreement for up to 250 deportees
  • Panama: "Bridge" arrangement with U.S. covering all costs
  • Costa Rica: Accepted 200+ deportees including 81 children and pregnant women
  • South Sudan: Despite active conflict and humanitarian crisis
  • Eswatini: Tiny African nation accepting violent criminals from multiple countries

Under Negotiation:

  • Libya (despite ongoing civil war)
  • Ukraine (despite active war with Russia)
  • Moldova, Mongolia, Kosovo, and dozens of others

The International Scope

According to reports, the Trump administration has approached or plans to approach roughly 51 countries to accept deportees. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explicitly stated the strategy: "We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings... And the further away the better, so they can't come back across the border."

U.S. Control Despite Claims

A crucial revelation emerged when El Salvador acknowledged to U.N. investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of deportees even after they're transferred to foreign prisons. This contradicts public claims that the U.S. has no authority over these individuals once deported.

The administration has created legal mechanisms to facilitate these operations:

  • Use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to bypass due process
  • "State secrets" privilege to avoid revealing evidence
  • Expedited removal procedures that eliminate judicial review
  • International agreements that circumvent U.S. constitutional protections

Why This Matters

This represents the industrialization of human trafficking using government resources and authority. The systematic nature—financial incentives, international networks, forced labor, exploitation of vulnerable populations—creates a template that could be expanded to target any population the government deems undesirable.

Coming Next: Part 3 will explore the historical precedents for this system, its connection to organized crime methodologies, and how the Supreme Court's interpretation of presidential power could make state-sponsored human trafficking constitutionally protected.