Saturday, July 26, 2025

What happened inside CECOT

July 26, 2025

Editor’s Note: There will be no Weekly Spotlight next weekend. We will be back in your inbox on Saturday, August 9.

ABUSING POWER AND RIGHTS

What happened inside CECOT

After four months of imprisonment, over 200 Venezuelan men who were deported from the United States to the El Salvador mega-prison CECOT were sent back to their home country of Venezuela, as part of a coordinated prisoner exchange. This swap confirms that the Trump administration did in fact have custody of the people they sent to El Salvador — despite repeated claims otherwise. They were just choosing not to and denying people’s due process and habeas corpus rights in doing so. While these men have been released from CECOT, some of them return to a country from which they sought asylum and safety. The nightmare continues for the many others who have been illegally renditioned and are being detained in countries that are not their own, where their lives could be in danger. We must continue to demand their return.

The men who were released are now sharing horror stories of the torture and brutality they endured in CECOT.

What will happen to the Venezuelan migrants who are still detained in CECOT? Will the lives of those who made it back to Venezuela be in danger, now that they’ve returned? POGO’s Katherine Hawkins addresses all that we do not yet know on Bluesky.

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ENDANGERED DATA

Mass surveillance and mass targeting

(Illustration: Ren Velez / POGO; Photos: Getty Images)

The Trump administration has granted ICE access to the data of all 79 million people enrolled in Medicaid. That data includes incredibly sensitive information like home addresses and ethnicities, and it will be used by ICE to target people for deportation — putting millions of people and families across the country in immediate danger. This historic and unprecedented violation of privacy should infuriate everyone. People should not have to worry about their privacy or fear for their safety when signing up for government services or seeking medical care. But the Trump administration has made it clear from their systematic destruction of privacy protections for American’s data that they do not care to abide the privacy laws that were made to protect you from abuse. This is warrantless mass surveillance under the auspices of immigration enforcement, and it will not stop there.

ANALYSIS Mass Deportations Will Rely on Authoritarian Surveillance: “Surveillance, by its very nature, is overbroad. It is rarely confined to those it ostensibly targets. Simply put, mass deportation, as envisioned by this administration, cannot occur without mass intimidation, mass arrests, mass detention, and mass surveillance,” writes POGO’s Don Bell.

A dangerous web of information: ProPublica reports on the Trump administration’s blueprint for an IRS data system that would give the Department of Homeland Security on-demand access to millions of taxpayers’ home addresses. The system is already under construction.

The Border Patrol is arresting people across the country — not just at the U.S.-Mexico border. How is this possible? Learn more about the overbroad jurisdiction and unchecked authority of this police force.

DIG DEEPER The Border's Closer Than You Think: Nearly two out of three people in the U.S. live in the border zone, writes POGO’s Spurthi Kontham in a previous edition of The Bridge.

WATCHDOG WATCH

A crisis thwarted — for now

In some positive news, the confirmation hearing for Paul Ingrassia, the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), was canceled after pressure from POGO and a coalition of more than 20 good government organizations. As we explained in our letter to the Senate, Ingrassia is an unfit and likely ruinous candidate for the role. While the cancellation is a good sign, we are not letting up until Ingrassia’s nomination is officially rejected or withdrawn. OSC is a crucial oversight agency meant to protect whistleblowers and federal workers experiencing retaliation, discrimination, or undue partisan influence. Given the administration’s active and increasing agenda to politicize the civil service, we must do everything we can to protect the independence of OSC so it can investigate wrongdoing and hold bad actors accountable.

LETTER Good Government Groups to Senate: Oppose OSC nominee Paul Ingrassia: The Office of Special Council is responsible for protecting federal workers. Ingrassia would undermine their rights instead. Our letter was covered by Washington Post, Government Executive, and the Intercept.

The previous head of OSC, Hampton Dellinger, was fired by President Trump in February. A federal judge affirmed that it was an illegal termination. But Dellinger dropped his case after an appeals court issued a stay on that ruling.

The bigger picture: By firing inspectors general en masse, attempting to shutter watchdogs at the Department of Homeland Security, and going after the Government Accountability Office, the Trump administration is trying to sabotage oversight — and skirt accountability.