{"id":886468,"date":"2026-01-20T19:12:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/pulled-60-minutes-segment-on-deported-migrants-airs-with-very-few-changes\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T19:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:12:34","slug":"pulled-60-minutes-segment-on-deported-migrants-airs-with-very-few-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/pulled-60-minutes-segment-on-deported-migrants-airs-with-very-few-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulled ’60 Minutes’ Segment On Deported Migrants Airs With Very Few Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Topline<\/h2>\n

A \u201c60 Minutes\u201d segment highlighting the harsh conditions faced by migrants deported from the U.S. and sent to El Salvador\u2019s notorious CECOT prison aired on CBS News on Sunday night, a month after it was abruptly pulled in a move that raised concerns about the network\u2019s editorial independence and was labeled as a \u201cpolitical\u201d decision by the segment\u2019s reporter. <\/p>\n

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Last month, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss abruptly pulled from the air a 60 Minutes story about Venezuelan migrants in the U.S., whom the Trump administration deported to CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Key Facts<\/h2>\n
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The segment that aired on the network<\/a> appeared to be largely unchanged from last month\u2019s pulled version\u2014which leaked online<\/a>\u2014despite CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss indicating<\/a> that the story was held back due to lack of \u201csufficient context\u201d and \u201cmissing critical voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early on in the segment, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told the viewers that \u201c60 Minutes has made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials on camera about our story\u2026They declined our request.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s airing included an additional clip of President Donald Trump referring to the Salvadoran prisons as \u201cgreat facilities\u201d where they \u201cdon’t play games.\u201d <\/p>\n

Other additions included a video of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying \u201cheinous monsters, rapists, murderers, sexual assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country\u201d were being sent to CECOT.<\/p>\n

The segment featured an interview with a college student from Venezuela who sought asylum in the U.S., was deported to CECOT and was allegedly beaten by guards there, which was unchanged from the previously leaked version.<\/p>\n

After highlighting the harsh conditions inside CECOT, Alfonsi said the Department of Homeland Security declined a request for an interview and \u201creferred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador,\u201d whose government did not respond.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What Else Did The Trump Administration Tell 60 Minutes?<\/h2>\n

Later in the segment, Alfonsi said \u201c60 Minutes\u201d sought complete records and criminal backgrounds of all 252 deported Venezuelan men who were sent to the prison, but were told by DHS that they are \u201cconfident in our law enforcement\u2019s intelligence and we are not going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Did The Segment Not Feature Any Interviews With Trump Officials?<\/h2>\n

After the segment was controversially pulled last month, the New York Times reported Weiss wanted the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d segment to include an interview with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and any other top Trump administration official on the matter. Sunday\u2019s airing included no such interviews on camera. CNN\u2019s Brian Stelter reported<\/a> that Weiss asked Alfonsi to interview \u201ca Trump official, such as Kristi Noem or Tom Homan,\u201d and said she would personally book the interview. However, even though \u201c60 Minutes\u201d producers flew to Washington, D.C., from New York, and Alfonsi flew in from Texas, the interviews never took place. In a statement shared with Stelter, CBS News said<\/a> it has \u201calways been committed to airing the 60 MINUTES CECOT piece as soon as it was ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Did The Segment Show?<\/h2>\n

The segment showed Venezuelan men deported from the U.S. arriving in El Salvador, before they were shackled, paraded before cameras and taken into CECOT. Luis Munoz Pinto, the Venezuelan college student interviewed by \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d said the first thing he was told by a guard upon arrival was that \u201cwe would never see the light of day or night again. He said, \u2018Welcome to hell. I’ll make sure you never leave.\u2019\u201d He later described the treatment he faced, saying: \u201cFour guards grabbed me, and they beat me until I bled, to the point of agony. They knocked our faces against the wall, that was when they broke one of my teeth.\u201d On the prison\u2019s condition, Pinto said: \u201cThere was blood everywhere, screams, people crying, people who couldn\u2019t take it and were urinating and vomiting on themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key Background<\/h2>\n

Late last month, the \u201cInside CECOT\u201d segment was promoted on CBS for several days but was abruptly pulled from that week\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d broadcast. 60 Minutes\u2019 official social handles put out an editor\u2019s note<\/a> saying: \u201cThe broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report \u2018Inside CECOT\u2019 will air in a future broadcast.\u201d The decision, however, triggered pushback within the network with Alfonsi telling colleagues in an internal email that Weiss had \u201cspiked our story\u201d despite it being \u201cscreened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices\u201d and \u201cfactually correct.\u201d In the email she said, \u201cIn my view, pulling it now\u2014after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.\u201d Several Democratic lawmakers called out CBS News\u2019 leadership, alleging it was bowing to pressure from the White House. A day later, the unaired segment leaked<\/a> in its entirety after being mistakenly uploaded online on Canadian broadcaster Global News\u2019 app, even though it aired the amended version of the episode in its televised broadcast.<\/p>\n

Further Reading<\/h2>\n

\u201860 Minutes\u2019 Segment Leaks Online After It Was \u2018Spiked\u2019 By CBS News Chief<\/a> (Forbes)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Siladitya Ray<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Topline A \u201c60 Minutes\u201d segment highlighting the harsh conditions faced by migrants deported from the U.S. and sent to El Salvador\u2019s notorious CECOT prison aired on CBS News on Sunday night, a month after it was abruptly pulled in a move that raised concerns about the network\u2019s editorial independence and was labeled as a \u201cpolitical\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":886469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1276,3562],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-886468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minutes","category-pulled"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}