Where Are the Deported Women and Children?
Centered Americans,
We’ve seen the images: men in shackles, their heads shaved, locked in El Salvador’s CECOT prison. But we haven’t been asking enough: what’s happening to the women and children?
They’re being deported too. Just not to CECOT.
El Salvador reportedly denied entry to at least eight Venezuelan women deported from the U.S., forcing ICE to return them. At least one was placed back into detention in El Paso, Texas.
But that’s just part of it. Entire families and children aren’t being returned home at all, but rerouted to third countries like Costa Rica and Panama, who have agreed to accept them.
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According to AP News, the U.S. deported nearly 200 migrants, including 81 children, to Costa Rica in February 2025. These kids, some as young as two, were sent to a rural migrant processing center near the Costa Rica–Panama border and locked in what used to be a factory building.
They stayed in that facility for nearly two months. During that time, they had no access to education, no therapy in their languages, and no legal support.
Reports said their identity documents were taken, and they couldn’t contact their families. The Costa Rican Ombudsman’s Office said they arrived in “visible distress” and didn’t even know they were headed to Costa Rica when they were deported.
Now, Costa Rica is being sued. A coalition of human rights lawyers has filed a legal complaint with the U.N., saying the indefinite detention of these children violates international law and damages their development.
The Costa Rican government says the migrants can leave if they apply for asylum or agree to go back to their home country. But for many families, that means homelessness—or danger. So, they stay.
And here’s the terrifying part: we still don’t know what happened to them. There’s no clear update on where these children are now.
And it’s not just Costa Rica. According to the Washington Post, over 400 migrants have been deported by the U.S. in 2025 alone to third countries like Panama and Costa Rica. Many of them come from China, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iran.
Some were initially housed in hotels. But later, they were sent to remote camps, like San Vicente in Panama, which human rights groups say are substandard and isolated.
On April 18th, a U.S. judge ruled that deporting individuals to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to challenge the decision violates due process. But Trump won’t comply. The deportations have already taken place. The trauma has already been done.
CECOT is the face of this crisis. But it’s not the only face. It’s not the whole story.
If we don’t ask where these men, women, and children are now we may never find them. And we may be repeating history in real time…
OUR MISSION AT CENTERED AMERICA:
Centered America is an organization that was founded to rebuild the bridge between communities who feel forgotten, people who belong here, and disillusioned Democrats and Republicans. We’re committed to upholding constitutional and democratic principles, fighting oligarchy and fascism, promoting activism, and resisting the Trump administration’s dangerous agenda. To achieve this, we focus on reconnecting with all open-minded voters, addressing their concerns directly, reshaping Democratic messaging, and providing resources that empower citizens to actively engage in protecting our democracy.
Centered America won’t stop fighting for you, and won’t stop fighting to uphold our constitutional and democratic principles.
Keep fighting for our democracy, keep fighting for America,
Sharad & Gavin | The Centered America Team