CBS News has finally broadcast a 60 Minutes feature that delves into the Trump administration’s practice of deporting migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador, unveiling fresh details.

Sharyn Alfonsi’s report, titled ‘Inside CECOT,’ was showcased in Sunday’s schedule, sharing the spotlight with another segment by Cecilia Vega that focused on the persistent demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota.

A representative for the network conveyed to Deadline, “CBS News leadership has remained steadfast in their commitment to airing the 60 Minutes CECOT feature as soon as it was ready for viewers.”

This evening, audiences have the opportunity to watch it, alongside other significant narratives, underscoring CBS News’ autonomy and the compelling nature of their storytelling.

The choice to air the segment arrives nearly a month after it was unexpectedly removed from the lineup just two hours before its scheduled broadcast.

At the time, newly appointed Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss contended that the piece required further investigation, as it lacked a sufficient response from the Trump administration, which, according to Alfonsi, had opted not to comment on the matter.

The decision, though, left network executives stumbling when the segment accidentally aired in Canada, and was shared online.

CBS News will finally air a 60 Minutes segment on the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison

Newly-installed Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss abruptly pulled the segment from the schedule last month, declaring that it needed additional reporting

As questions about the scrapped segment continued, Weiss ordered Alfonsi on Thursday to interview a Trump official like Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem or Border Czar Tom Homan, CNN reports. 

Weiss said she would personally book the interview with the Trump official, two sources familiar with the process told the outlet, which was the first to report that the segment would finally air.

60 Minutes producers then flew to Washington DC from New York City and Alfonsi flew in from Texas. 

‘But the promised interview did not materialize,’ Brian Stelter wrote in the CNN report. ‘Everyone went home empty handed.’ 

As a result, the report did not include any direct interviews or exchanges onscreen with Trump officials, but did contain statements from several different US government agencies – something Weiss felt was lacking in the original piece, an unidentified executive told Variety. 

In one clip from the updated segment, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared that those imprisoned at CECOT ‘are heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, kidnappers, sexual assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country and they must be held accountable.’

The White House also sent a statement to 60 Minutes, saying: ‘President Trump is committed to keeping his promises to the American people by removing dangerous criminal and terrorist illegal aliens.’ 

The new report also included three more minutes of new reporting, including a statistic about the number of people who are deported from the US because they are a criminal.

Sharyn Alfonsi was reportedly flown to Washington DC to speak with Trump administration officials about the segment, but failed to secure an interview

Alfonsi, whose contract at CBS News is set to expire over the summer, is not expected to note any of the changes or the controversy surrounding the segment when she introduces it Sunday night

The original piece that aired in Canada stated that only eight of the 252 men deported to CECOT had been convicted of violent crimes in the US, but the statistic sounded off to Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, an anonymous source told the New York Post. 

After they then pushed for more reporting, they learned that about half of the 252 men had contact with the American justice system – either criminal convictions or pending charges in the US. 

The updated story also noted that one of the men interviewed by Alfonsi has tattoos that are known marks of gangs or Nazis – which the Trump administration uses to identify migrants for potential deportation.

But, Alfonsi notes, those symbols do not have any connection with the Tren de Aragua gang, and neither of the men she spoke with had been convicted of any crimes in the US.

One of the men, Luis Munoz Pinto, a 27-year-old college student, claimed the detainees were left without food or medicine.

‘The sicker and more injured we were, the better it was for them,’ Munoz Pinto claimed.

He said that the first thing a guard told him when he arrived at the facility ‘was that we would never see day or night again.’ 

‘He said “Welcome to Hell, I’ll make sure you never leave,”‘ the deported migrant said, later claiming: ‘When you get there, you know you’re in Hell. You don’t need anyone else telling you.’

In the segment that aired in Canada, Alfonsi spoke to a college student who was detained by US Customs before being deported to CECOT

The student described how he was tortured upon arrival at the El Salvadoran prison

Another deported migrant, Wuilliam Lozada Sanchez, said he and others were taken to a ‘little room where there’s no light, no ventilation, nothing.’ 

‘It’s a cell for punishment where you can’t see your hand in front of your face. After they locked us in, they came to beat us every half hour, and they pounded on the door with their sticks to traumatize us while we were in there,’ he claimed. 

Throughout the updated segment, Alfonsi noted that Trump administration officials declined to be interviewed for the story.

She also said 60 Minutes has repeatedly asked Homeland Security for the complete records and criminal backgrounds of all 252 Venezuelan men the US sent to CECOT, but were not provided with the information.

‘We are confident in our law enforcement’s intelligence and we aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one,’ a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the program this week. 

‘That would be insane.’

When questioned about the conditions at the prison, the Homeland Security spokesperson noted that the men were not under US jurisdiction while in El Salvador – though a federal judge has disputed that. 

Alfonsi (left) sent the email to her colleagues at 60 Minutes, including Lesley Stahl (right), following the decision to postpone the segment

Alfonsi, whose contract at CBS News is set to expire over the summer, has previously argued that she and her team followed all journalistic standards, requesting comment from the White House, State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

By deciding not to run the segment, she claimed, Weiss was censoring her work and destroying 60 Minutes’ reputation.

‘I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight,’ she warned, ominously.

Alfonsi told her colleagues in the email that the segment was ‘screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct.’

‘In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.’

She then went on to argue that that the segment was only killed because the Trump administration refused to comment on the segment, saying if that is a ‘valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.’

‘If the standard for airing a story becomes ‘the government must agree to be interviewed,’ then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast,’ she claimed.

‘We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.’

The postponement of the segment came as David Ellison, the owner of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, tried to court the president to support his hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros-Discovery.

The postponement of the segment comes as David Ellison, the owner of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, tries to court the president to support his hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros-Discovery

Weiss, however, has denied her decision was political, arguing it is standard practice to hold back stories until they’re perfect.  

‘My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom,’ she told The Times.

‘I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.’

Weiss also told colleagues that she spiked the segment simply because it ‘did not advance the ball’ during the network’s typical 9am editorial call on Monday, The New York Times reported.

She pointed out how the the Times and other publications have ‘previously done similar work’ while maintaining that fresh, through-provoking content was her ‘north star.’

‘To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more,’ Weiss told staff.

‘And this is 60 Minutes. We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera. 

‘Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else,’ she argued. ‘That’s my north star, and I hope it’s yours too.’