CECOT took center stage this week after CBS’ “60 Minutes” abruptly postponed a highly anticipated segment examining migrant inmates deported to El Salvador’s notorious maximum-security prison.
The segment, titled “Inside CECOT,” was set to feature correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing migrants deported under the Trump administration and later released from the prison. According to a CBS press release, the report focused on detainees who described “the brutal and torturous conditions” inside the facility.
Just hours before Sunday’s broadcast, however, the program issued an editor’s note on X announcing a last-minute change. “The broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast,” the note read.
The network replaced the segment with a feature on British musical siblings titled “The Kanneh-Masons.” CBS declined to offer a detailed explanation, though a spokesperson told Fox News Digital the network “determined it needed additional reporting.”
CBS also privatized a YouTube preview of the segment that included Alfonsi questioning a former inmate about his time behind bars. “Did you think you were going to die there?” Alfonsi asked. The former prisoner replied, “We thought we were already the living dead honestly.”
The controversy surrounding CECOT stems from the Trump administration’s deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants earlier this year, whom officials said were linked to criminal gangs. A federal judge later issued an emergency order blocking certain deportations, but many migrants remained in the prison for months. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has since ordered the Justice Department to disclose their status and location.
