Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been busted trying to pass off a group of detained Salvadorans as Venezuelans in a fear-mongering publicity stunt hyping her immigration crackdown.
Noem, dubbed “ICE Barbie” for her love of highly stylized anti-immigration photo ops, dressed up for the cameras during a tour of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) facility in March 2025. The visit took place soon after the Trump administration claimed it had sent more than 200 suspected Venezuelan gang members to the notorious mega prison as part of its mass-deportations of migrants it labeled the “worst of the worst.”
But some of the men Noem had paraded out to stand behind her for the video were not Venezuelan at all, according to a segment of CBS News’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday after previously being pulled by the network’s new Trump-friendly boss. A team of students at UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center—along with Human Rights Watch—flagged glaring inconsistencies in Noem’s video.
“All the visible men have either an ‘MS’ on their chest, or a ‘13,’ or an ‘ES’ for El Salvador, and all those gangs are associated with El Salvador,” one student told 60 Minutes’ Sharyn Alfonsi.
Juan Pappier, deputy director at the nonprofit Human Rights Watch, added: “We know that those men in her video are not Venezuelans. They are Salvadoran, probably accused of being gang leaders and probably people who have been in jail for many, many years in El Salvador.”
The Trump administration flew around 250 alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang last March and April to the infamous prison in El Salvador, with little or no due process. The gang was designated a terrorist organization by President Donald Trump on his first day back in office in January 2025.
Criminologists told 60 Minutes that, unlike Central American gangs such as MS-13, Tren de Aragua does not use tattoos to signal membership. Some of the men seen behind Noem in the photo op had tattoos associated with MS-13, but not the Venezuelan gang.
Luis Muñoz Pinto, who was sent to CECOT after being detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in California during his asylum process, said he had tried to explain that his tattoos were not gang-related.
“I have some tattoos. None of them have anything to do with any criminal group,” he told 60 Minutes. “I explained to them, saying that I didn’t belong to any gang, to which the agent responded, ‘But you are Venezuelan.’”
The “Inside CECOT” segment was originally scheduled to air on Dec. 21 but was controversially pulled by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who said it required additional reporting, including on-air interviews with Trump administration officials.
Alfonsi introduced the segment detailing allegations of torture inside CECOT with a pointed message addressing the controversy.
“Since November, 60 Minutes has made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials on camera about our story,” she said. “They declined our requests.”
In a statement to CBS News, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “Tren de Aragua and MS-13 are some of the most violent and ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth. They rape, maim, and murder for sport. President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow criminal gangs to terrorize American citizens. Once again, the media is falling all over themselves to defend criminal illegal gang members.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for further comment.
