Exporting Punishment: How Fear Became Foreign Policy
- Ilana Uribe Zuloaga
- Apr 11
- 6 min read
By Ilana Uribe Zuluaga
Colombia, London School of Economics and Political Science
You may have seen the viral images: endless rows of shaved heads, tattooed backs hunched forward, arms shackled behind them, eyes cast down in humiliating submission. Some are gang members, some are migrants, some have active asylum claims, and others have no criminal record at all…This is not a dystopian film, but the reality of Bukele and Trump’s high-budget alliance deporting migrants directly into El Salvador’s mega-prison system. This article will unpack the reality behind the “tough on crime” narrative, which not only reduces human beings to numbers and prejudice, but holds a permanent state of emergency that has swept up thousands without charge or trial. The Trump–Bukele deportation agreement is not just a harsh immigration policy, but a dehumanising and borderline unconstitutional arrangement that exploits human suffering for political gain, erodes international legal protections, and reframes migration as criminality.
In March 2025, the Trump administration restarted mass deportations under a questionable arrangement: sending alleged gang members and undocumented migrants directly to El Salvador (Reuters, 2025). These individuals, particularly alleged Venezuelan gang members, are being held in CECOT, President Nayib Bukele’s mega-prison built to house up to 40,000 people under extreme militarised conditions (The Guardian, 2025).
To understand the alliance we need to start in El Salvador. In March 2022, President Bukele declared a “state of exception,” (a legal mechanism that allows a government to temporarily suspend constitutional rights during times of crisis) after a drastic increase in gang-related homicides. What began as a temporary security measure quickly became an instrument for power that permanently dissolved many constitutional rights and resulted in mass arrests carried out without warrants or any kind of legal protections. More than 85,000 people have been detained, many arbitrarily, and the prison system has grown beyond capacity, with numerous reports of torture, medical neglect, and deaths in custody (Amnesty International, 2024). Not only is Bukele’s security model rooted in extreme surveillance and control, but has also become a spectacle in the media, a tool for garnering domestic popularity and influence abroad. This is an example of mano dura—Spanish for “iron fist”—a repressive policy approach that prioritises heavy-handed policing and incarceration over social reform or rehabilitation.
On the other side of the alliance stands Donald Trump and his anti-immigrant rhetoric. His political career has long been constructed on vilifying migrants and his new deportation strategy, which ignores legal safeguards and reframes migration as a threat to be punished elsewhere further escalates this polarising approach. Many of the individuals deported had pending asylum claims—legal requests for protection based on a fear of persecution in their home countries—but were denied the opportunity to defend themselves in a legal setting.
Together, Bukele and Trump have found a shared language based on their long-standing obsessions: a language of fear, security, punishment, and political theatre. Trump’s previous immigration record includes the infamous family separation policy and the invocation of Title 42 to block asylum claims during the COVID-19 pandemic (Foreign Policy, 2025). Not only does this new deportation approach circumvent due process—the legal right to fair treatment and access to a lawyer, trial, and defence—but it relies on El Salvador’s increasingly authoritarian apparatus to carry it out. This partnership also represents a foreign policy victory for Bukele, legitimising his "mano dura" (iron fist) approach at an international level.
The Trump-Bukele alliance does not merely enforce harsh policies but performs them. Deportations are televised, and migrants are shown surrounded by armed guards in black balaclavas on multiple social media platforms, promoting Bukele’s success in national security (The Independent, 2025). This humiliating public display acts as a political theatre that appeals to Trump’s base by projecting authority and boosts Bukele’s domestic image as a ruthless defender of order. However, the real spectacle lies in its brutality. Migrants (some accused solely based on tattoos or social media posts) are stripped of legal identity and dignity, facing indefinite detention in overcrowded cells with limited access to water, food, or healthcare (The Atlantic, 2025). Tattoos of religious symbols have been misread as gang affiliation, and legal recourse is almost impossible to obtain. However, the real issue lies in the institutionalisation of injustice through mass trials and the erosion of judicial independence. International human rights bodies have warned that these actions may constitute torture and enforced disappearance (WOLA, 2024) that dehumanizes migrants through physical treatment and the demonisation of the migrant through public narrative. By equating mobility with criminality and poverty with terrorism, both governments are actively fueling a moral panic that is resulting in a shift of terrifying consequences regarding rights, empathy, and the law.
This alliance is a textbook case study in how authoritarian practices are justified, legitimized, normalised and even exported under the excuse of national security. Both leaders are clearly exploiting migration to build political support, and while Trump avoids the political cost of detaining migrants on U.S. soil, Bukele gains international credibility and millions in financial support (Axios, 2025). It is also indispensable to mention that the deportations are actively violating the principle of non-refoulement, a core element of international refugee law that prohibits returning individuals to countries where they face persecution (WOLA, 2022). Many deportees also had pending asylum claims, yet were removed without hearings, legal counsel, or due process, leaving them defenseless against the government (Reuters, 2025).
Independent investigations are also claiming rampant human rights abuses, and have documented beatings, torture, medical neglect, and mass deaths in custody (Human Rights Watch, 2025). Tattoos, neighborhoods, and even hairstyles have become grounds for imprisonment (Democracy Now!, 2025), and blur the lines between criminal, migrant, and gang member, enabling systemic abuse. Rather than tackling poverty, or political instability, El Salvador and the US are investing in simultaneous spectacle and repression, in a model that is not about justice; but about control.
Why should this matter to you?
The criminalization of migration, the outsourcing of detention, and the erosion of asylum rights are shaping a world of less empathy, fewer protections, and more walls. We will live with the precedents set today. We can see the logic of criminalization spreading as we speak. For instance, the EU is funding Libyan coast guards and the UK plans deportation flights to Rwanda. These are not isolated events; but pieces of a growing architecture of exclusion that will affect each and everyone of us (The Guardian, 2025).In short, migrant rights are human rights. When governments dehumanize some, they create tools that will be turned against all. We know this from history, as authoritarianism rarely stays in its lane.
The Trump-Bukele deal marks a step away from international legal norms and toward a world of deals between strongmen. International law is constantly being undermined and democratic institutions such as judiciaires, watchdogs, and independent press are increasingly being gutted (CSIS, 2025). The media is increasingly desensitizing the public, and exacerbates echo chambers and disinformation, increasing support for authoritarian leaders and creating a positive feedback loop of biased information and authoritarian leadership.
In the end, this isn’t just about Trump or Bukele. It’s about what kind of world we allow to be built—and what kind of students, citizens, and people we choose to be in it. The alliance is more than a political arrangement. It is a warning that reveals how easily fear can be weaponized and repackaged as authoritarian strength. Not only are migrants being stripped of their rights but of their identity; and are being cast as threats, criminals, and are ultimately being treated as subhuman. What’s at stake is not only the future of democracy and our collective conscience. Once injustice is normalised right in front of us, the damage is not just political, but moral. The viral images, the scandalous headlines, and the rehearsed speeches are precisely designed to desensitise us and to obscure cruelty behind control. As future decision-makers, we have a responsibility to stay critical, informed, and ask who benefits from the stories we’re being shown. In other words, opposition starts with what we choose to see, question, and refuse to accept.
Researched by
Hana Reid
United States, London School of Economics and Political Science
Sources
Al Jazeera (2025) Trump deports 238 gang members to El Salvador: What’s the controversy? [Online]. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/17/trump-deports-238-gang-members-to-el-salvador-whats-the-controversy
Amnesty International (2024) El Salvador: Mil días del régimen de excepción. [Online]. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/el-salvador-mil-dias-regimen-excepcion-modelo-seguridad-a-costa-derechos-humanos/
Axios (2025) Trump foreign policy: deportations to El Salvador. [Online]. Available at: https://www.axios.com/2025/01/28/trump-foreign-policy-deportations
BBC (2025) El Salvador mega prison and the U.S. deportation deal. [Online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c33zve3254no
CSIS (2025) Tough but Weak: Power and Politics in El Salvador. [Online]. Available at: https://www.csis.org/analysis/tough-weak-lenient-powerful
Democracy Now! (2025) Protesters in El Salvador denounce Bukele-Trump migrant policy. [Online]. Available at: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/28/headlines/protesters_in_el_salvador_denounce_nayib_bukeles_human_rights_abuses_collaboration_with_trump
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International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) (2024) UPR: States urge El Salvador to limit state of emergency. [Online]. Available at: https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/upr-states-urge-el-salvador-to-limit-state-of-emergency-and-end-arbitrary-detention/
Reuters (2025) Trump deported 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador; dozens have active asylum cases. [Online]. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-deported-238-venezuelans-el-salvador-dozens-have-active-asylum-cases-2025-04-01/
The Atlantic (2025) Administrative error sends man to Salvadoran prison. [Online]. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/an-administrative-error-sends-a-man-to-a-salvadoran-prison/682254/
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WOLA (2024) Three years of state of exception in El Salvador. [Online]. Available at: https://www.wola.org/analysis/mass-incarceration-and-democratic-deterioration-three-years-of-the-state-of-exception-in-el-salvador/
