NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 24, 2025

Q: The Trump administration transferred hundreds of immigrants to a notorious El Salvador prison even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration. Where is the Central American country of El Salvador?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Trump officials claimed the migrants were part of the Tren de Aragua gang, which originated in a prison in which country?

A. Cuba

B. El Salvador

C. United States

D. Venezuela


D. A Venezuelan prison was the headquarters of the gang which spread throughout Latin America and the United States as millions of people fled Venezuela’s failed economy. The Trump administration has not identified the deportees nor provided any evidence they are members of the gang or committed crimes. Venezuela called the deportations “kidnapping.”


Q: El Salvador imprisons a bigger share of its citizens – 1,659 of every 100,000 people – than any other country. Which nation has the second-highest incarceration rate?

A. Cuba

B. Rwanda

C. United States

D. Venezuela


A. Cuba ranks second – imprisoning 794 for every 100,000 of its people. The African nation of Rwanda ranks third and Central Asia’s Turkmenistan is fourth. The United States ranks fifth in incarceration rate, but it imprisons over 1.8 million people – more than any other country.


Q: President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants to El Salvador. The act has been used just three times and only during wars declared by Congress. It was first used against the citizens of which nation?

A. Germany

B. Great Britain

C. Japan

D. Spain


B. The act was first used in the War of 1812 against the British, then in World War I and finally in World War II, when it was used for mass detentions of people of German, Italian and especially Japanese ancestry, including those with U.S. citizenship. A federal judge ordered the El Salvador deportations blocked pending ruling on the legality of Trump using the act without a declaration of war.


Q: The U.S. is paying El Salvador $6 million dollars a year to house the migrants in a prison with no visitation, recreation or education and 65 to 70 prisoners in a cell. What nation once sent its prisoners to Devil’s Island off the coast of South America?

A. Argentina

B. Belgium

C. France

D. Germany


C. Devil’s Island was part of a French penal colony on the mainland and islands of French Guiana that operated from 1852 to 1952. The criminals and political exiles sent to the colony suffered death rates as high as 75% from the harsh treatment and tropical diseases. The most famous French detainee was Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was wrongly convicted of being a German spy because of antisemitism.