60 Minutes Investigation ‘Found No Criminal Record’ for 75% of the Venezuelan Migrants Trump Imprisoned in El Salvador

60 Minutes correspondent Cecilia Vega dug into the alleged criminal histories of the 238 Venezuelan migrants imprisoned by the Trump administration in an El Salvador mega-prison and found 75% did not have a public criminal record.

“The Trump administration has released very little information about the Venezuelan migrants sent to prison in El Salvador. But internal government documents obtained by 60 Minutes and public records indicate that an overwhelming majority have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges,” reported 60 Minutes on Sunday.

Vega explained the finding on air, “The Trump administration has yet to release the identities of the Venezuelan men it sent to El Salvador last month. We obtained internal government documents listing their names and any known criminal information.”

“We cross-referenced that with domestic and international court filings, news reports and arrest records whenever we could find them. At least 22 percent of the men on the list have criminal records here in the United States or abroad. The vast majority are for non-violent offenses like theft, shoplifting, and trespassing. About a dozen are accused of murder, rape, assault, and kidnapping. For 3 percent of those deported, it is unclear whether a criminal record exists. But we could not find criminal records for 75 percent of the Venezuelans, 179 men, now sitting in prison,” she added.

On Sunday night, 60 Minutes did a segment on the migrants who had been detained in the notoriously violent El Salvadoran prisons without any kind of due process in the U.S. The segment focused on Andry Hernandez Romero, whom the show reported on as “a gay makeup artist who came to the United States last year in search of asylum.”

“Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared. One day he was there, and the next day we’re supposed to have court, and he wasn’t brought to court,” Lindsay Toczylowski, Hernandez Romero’s lawyer, told 60 Minutes.

Over the weekend, Trump was asked if he would like to house American citizens in El Salvador’s brutal prisons. Trump replied, “I love that. If we could take some of our 20-time wise guys that push people into subways and hit people over the back of the head and then purposely run people over in cars, if he would take them, I would be honored to give them. I don’t know what the law says on that but I can’t imagine the law would say anything different. If they can house these horrible criminals for a lot less money than it costs us, I’m all for it but I would only do according to the law.”

Watch the clip above.