60 Minutes plans to air a segment on Trump administration deportations to a notorious El Salvador prison, four weeks after it was pulled from the broadcast from CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss.
The network announced that the segment would be part of the line up on Sunday evening’s broadcast.
A CBS News spokesperson said, “CBS News leadership has always been committed to airing the 60 Minutes CECOT piece as soon as it was ready. Tonight, viewers get to see it, along with other important stories, all of which speak to CBS News’ independence and the power of our storytelling.”
The segment had been edited and promoted for the Dec. 21 broadcast, but just hours before the newsmagazine was set to air, the network announced that it would appear on a future date.
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Later that evening, the correspondent on the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, later sent an email to staffers objecting to the decision to pull it, saying that it was not an editorial move but a “political” one and amounted to corporate interference.
Alfonsi wrote that the piece had been screened five times and cleared by standards and practices and network attorneys. “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,” Alfonsi said.
In the note, Alfonsi suggested that the reason for pulling the segment was that the administration had refused to participate. “We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver destined to kill the story.”
Weiss, though, told staffers the next day that she held the story because it was “not ready.”
“We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera,” she said, apparently referring to a Trump administration official who could address the deportations.
“Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That’s my north star and I hope it’s yours, too,” Weiss said.
The segment features interviews with Venezuelan deportees who were sent by the Trump administration last year to the harsh CECOT prison.
Per the log line for the segment, issued by the network, states, “Last year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists. This unusual move sparked an ongoing legal battle, and ten months later the U.S. government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with some of the now released deportees, who describe the brutal and torturous conditions they endured inside CECOT.” Oriana Zill de Granados is the producer. of the segment.
The 60 Minutes broadcast also will feature a report from Cecilia Vega on the confrontations between ICE officers and Minneapolis residents amid protests over the shooting of Renee Good. Another segment, from Holly Williams, is a feature on the Australian saltwater crocodile.
The unaired segment, though, appeared online on Dec. 22, a day after it was scheduled to air. After it was pulled, Global TV — the outlet that airs 60 Minutes in Canada — had featured the segment on its app before it was taken down, apparently appearing by mistake.
In the segment, Alfonsi said that the Department of Homeland Security “declined our request for an interview” and referred questions about the prison to the government of El Salvador, which did not respond.
Among those featured in the segment that surfaced online was Luis Munoz Pinto, who described being beaten and sexually assaulted. He said that he was detained by customs officers as he was awaiting asylum proceedings but had no criminal record.
The report cited statistics gathered by Human Rights Watch that nearly half of those the U.S. sent to the prison had no criminal history. In the segment, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said 60 Minutes reviewed the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement data and it “confirms the findings of Human Rights Watch.”
CNN first reported on the plans to air the segment on Sunday evening.