Black Codes to Black Sites: Trump’s Deportations Are Modern Convict Leasing

The president is reviving one of the oldest strategies in American politics

America’s immigration system has always walked a fine line between enforcement and exploitation. Under Trump, that line has vanished. In fact, this administration’s deportation scheme—in which the U.S. can deport migrants, without due process, into El Salvador’s prison system, where they supply forced labor for El Salvador—now resembles one of the darkest chapters from America’s past. In the following video, I expound on this very troubling historical parallel.

Watch it below or on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.

© The UnPopulist, 2025

Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.