CBS's "60 Minutes" is facing a firestorm of criticism after airing a sympathetic segment featuring two repatriated Venezuelan men tearfully describing their time in El Salvador's notorious CECOT mega-prison as "four months of hell."
The segment is set to air Sunday, but the outlet offered a glimpse of what was to come with a roughly 30-second clip. And man, find yourself a person who looks at you the way "60 Minutes" and Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi look at these gang-affiliated thugs.
Even the caption for the clip on X is slanted to elicit maximum sympathy.
"A group of Venezuelan men thought they were being deported from the U.S. back to Venezuela," it reads. "Instead, they were delivered to CECOT, the notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where they were shackled and paraded before cameras."
Hey, CBS, you know how they could have avoided this travesty? By not entering the United States illegally and following the proper procedures to become legal. Instead, their journey ended in CECOT, and they were swiftly delivered to the "find out" stage of FAFO.
Alfonsi, towards the end of the segment, says the two men "endured four months of hell."
"Did you think you were going to die there?" the misty-eyed pseudo-journalist asks.
"We thought we were already the living dead," one very cleaned-up individual responds through an interpreter.
A group of Venezuelan men thought they were being deported from the U.S. back to Venezuela. Instead, they were delivered to CECOT, the notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where they were shackled and paraded before cameras. This Sunday, two of those men tell 60… pic.twitter.com/HsvVzLMcNA
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) December 19, 2025
Responses to the forthcoming interview were mainly of the mocking variety. There were memes. Lots of memes. Including GIFs of the world's smallest violin.
But there were some others which made salient points.
"Can you give us more information on the 'group of Venezuelan men?'" asked nationally syndicated talk radio host Joe Pagliarulo. "Guessing you left some out."
Considering CBS has been following this situation closely (the plight of the illegals, not of their American victims), it's quite likely that the men being interviewed were part of a group of 238 illegals previously deported from the U.S. under the Trump administration. The administration explicitly accused them and the others of being gang members affiliated with the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Feel free to check out this column by another "60 Minutes" correspondent, Cecilia Vega, where she follows the case of a deported illegal among that group, which a DHS spokesman describes as "actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters, and more."
In it, they crank up the sympathy to eleven, even going beyond the "Maryland man" narrative and focusing on an individual who is "a gay man" who "loves to do theatre" and "was part of a theatre troupe."
Get your Kleenex ready. Anyway, back to the current propaganda piece.
"Not sorry. Maybe you should spend your time talking to the victims and their families of these gang members, illegal aliens who became criminals the minute they crossed our borders illegally," one person wrote on X. "0 sympathy."
One viewer on Instagram offered some sound advice: "Next time, enter any country legally."
Just another reason why you should self-deport if you are here illegally.
— Just me (@Shuff1138) December 20, 2025
Also another reason to loathe the CIA propaganda machine AKA legacy media. Did they interview even one J6 political prisoner? The CITIZENS who were denied due process and tortured for months and years? https://t.co/zwzveW6Sn8
It's such a compelling sob story that the Venezuelan gangs and violent cartels must be smiling at the effort by "60 Minutes."
Oh, speaking of which, a "60 Minutes Overtime" segment airing in March sat down with a smuggler for the Sinaloa drug cartel. We repeat, they had a friendly sit-down—developed a relationship with, and spoke to—with a drug and human smuggler working for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Yet another example of legacy media humanizing illegal immigrants and alleged criminals at the expense of American victims. Pretty much another day ending in 'Y.'
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