'60 Minutes' airs report on Trump deportations that was suddenly pulled
a month ago
[January 19, 2026]
By DAVID BAUDER
“60 Minutes” on Sunday aired its story about Trump administration
deportations that was abruptly pulled from the newsmagazine's lineup a
month ago, a move that had triggered an internal battle about political
pressure that spilled out into the open.
Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi made no reference to her dispute with CBS
News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss in the story about deportees who had
been sent to El Salvador's notoriously harsh CECOT prison. When the
segment was struck from the Dec. 21 episode on Weiss' orders, Alfonsi
told her “60 Minutes” colleagues that it “was not an editorial decision,
it was a political one.”
Weiss had argued that the story did not sufficiently reflect the
administration's viewpoint or advance reporting that had been done by
other news organizations earlier.
The story shown Sunday included no on-camera interviews with Trump
administration officials. But it did include statements from the White
House and Department of Homeland Security that were not part of what
Alfonsi had used before her story was pulled. Some of statements, which
were carried in full on the “60 Minutes” website, were dated prior to
Dec. 21.
“Since November, ‘60 Minutes’ has made several attempts to interview key
Trump administration officials on camera about our story,” Alfonsi said.
“They declined our requests.”
Alfonsi did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press
on Sunday. She said in her email that the administration’s refusal to
consent to on-camera interviews was a tactical maneuver designed to kill
the story.
CBS says it was always going to air the piece
CBS News, in a statement said, that its "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.”
Alfonsi's report was the second of three on Sunday's show, with the lead
story being Cecilia Vega's report from Minneapolis about ICE enforcement
efforts and the protests to its tactics.
The initial decision to sideline Alfonsi's CECOT story became a
flashpoint for critics who said the appointment of Weiss, founder of the
Free Press website who had no previous experience in television news,
represented an attempt by the network's new corporate leadership to
curry favor with Trump.
While pulled from the broadcast in December, Alfonsi's original story
mistakenly became available online. CBS News had fed a version of the
newsmagazine to Global Television, a network that airs “60 Minutes” in
Canada, which posted it on its website before the last-minute switch
removing the piece.
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As prisoners stand looking out from a cell, Homeland Security
Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorism
Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 26, 2025. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
That enabled sharp-eyed viewers to see what Weiss had rejected,
offering the opportunity to compare it to what “60 Minutes”
eventually put on the air.
The body of the story was unchanged. It included a brief clip of
President Donald Trump saying the prison operators “don't play
games,” and one from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt
saying that “heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, sexual
assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country” were
sent there.
Alfonsi's introduction was updated to lead with the Jan. 3 U.S. raid
that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro,
currently held in U.S. custody. She changed the end of the story to
include the administration comment, including its explanation for
not providing detailed records on the migrants sent to El Salvador.
The administration also provided photos of tattoos worn by the two
migrants Alfonsi interviewed, including one swastika that the
interviewee said he had gotten as a teen-ager not knowing what it
meant.
The CBS-administration relationship has evolved
Since Weiss' appointment, Trump administration officials have been
more visible on CBS News, in interviews that she sometimes helped
arrange. The president himself was interviewed by Norah O'Donnell on
“60 Minutes” on Nov. 2.
The New York Times reported Saturday that after Trump was
interviewed last week by new “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil,
Leavitt told the network that “we'll sue your ass off” if the
exchange wasn't aired in full.
All of the 13-minute interview was shown Tuesday, an unusual step
for one of the broadcast networks' evening newscasts, a half hour
summary of the day's big stories. CBS told The Times that it had
decided to run the interview unedited at the time it was booked.
Trump has objected in the past to how his interviews have been
edited — including releasing an unedited transcript of an interview
conducted by Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” in 2020.
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