The American Council of Immigration does not approve or oppose candidates for elected offices. We aim to provide an analysis of the impact of elections on the US immigration system.
In the weeks before March 15th, preparations for the Trump administration’s major operations were kicked out to High Gere. A Venezuelan man attending a routine check-in between US immigration and customs enforcement was handcuffed and set out. Ice agents fan out across the community, questioning men with tattoos and began detaining them. By the week of March 10th, hundreds of men had been transferred to Elval Detention Center in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and the ice officer said he would be deported to Venezuela.
All this reached its peak on March 15th. The Trump administration ran around 300 people on three El Salvador-bound planes, including 238 Venezuelans accused of being members of Venezuelan gangster Tren de Aragua and 23 Salvadorians accused of being members of the MS-13. More than 130 Venezuelans have pending immigration court hearings and have never been removed under the immigration law. They sent President Trump to El Salvador as part of a call to the Wartime Act of 1798, known as the Alien Enemy Law, and signed a contract between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President El Salvador, President Naive Buquere.
None of the people on board knew what was coming, nor were they given the opportunity to challenge them in court. All these men are now being held in a stately immortality at the infamous “Secott” or terrorism confinement center in El Salvador. A photojournalist who happened to be at hand explained how the man was shaved, stripped naked and attacked by security guards. One man was reported to have sobbed and pleaded with the guard. Since that moment, no man could speak to the public, his loved one, or his lawyer. Their fate remains unknown.
People should not be sent to corrupt in foreign prisons they have never committed without being convicted of a crime that could justify imprisonment. This principle is particularly relevant at present. Because details of the operation in court filings and media reports reveal that they are troubled by the errors and surveillance that sent innocent people to one of the world’s worst prisons. There should be no at least 10 people on the plane there. Eight women and one Nicaraguan man rejected by El Salvador, and one man who found deported ICE illegal were the result of “administrative errors” that had previously been granted protection from deportation to El Salvador. Friends of family, loved ones and dozens of friends say that the imprisoned man has nothing to do with gangs or criminal activity.
The cases that have been highlighted so far have raised two major issues in this unprecedented operation. They relied on government errors and flimsy gang allegations that were never presented before court. These flaws highlight the need for a formal investigation of the March 15th operation, and highlight the reasons why ignoring legitimate processes leads to immediate and irreparable harm for people, and threatens the core of the principles of the fundamental laws of the country’s establishment. Several incidents strongly suggest that the government has unfairly sent many people to this Salvador mega prison.
The case of Kilmer Abrego, the father of two Maryland, who was granted protection from deportation to El Salvador in 2019 by an immigration judge. In an investigation by the Atlantic Show, he lived a quiet life in the Maryland suburbs with his US citizen wife and her children, until he was re-arrested on March 12th and sent to Elbale in 2019 on an unfounded allegation that he was connected to an MS-13. Ice knew he could not legally deport him to El Salvador, but as his manifesto was confirmed he was placed on flight at the final moments. This was “administrative error,” as ICE declared in court filings, sending him directly to the worst prisons in El Salvador. The case of Frengel Reyes being deported to El Salvador despite no tattoos, criminal history or possible connections with Trender Ragua. A Miami Herald investigation found that the ice officer could be incorrectly copying information to a file from another person. The only ICE document accuses him of being a gang member, so he lists the wrong last names in multiple locations and includes two separate identification numbers.
Mr Abrego’s case was the first place the government admitted the error, but not the first case where the error was likely. In the rush of the Trump administration to carry out flashy alien enemies, evidence continues to emerge that deportation has led to many such “erroneousness,” surveillance and serious mistakes. ICE itself acknowledges that “many” of men had no criminal history in the United States, but it argues that evidence of gang connections is robust.
Importantly, evidence submitted to court after surgery suggests that much of the ICE’s “verification” process is based on a highly subjective interpretation of tattoos and social media posts. This is a troubling process considering that even Tren de Aragua experts and some federal law enforcement agencies claim that gangs are identifying tattoos or hand signs.
Worse, major government “intelligence news” documents were distributed to low-level officers and helped identify the so-called “Tren de aragua tattoos.” The following cases demonstrate how subjective these interpretations are:
The case of gay makeup artist Andrie Hernandez was deported to El Salvador after Ice officials determined that tattoos read “Mama” and “Daddy” were gang tattoos because they had a crown on each word. As New Yorker research pointed out, Hernandez comes from the town of Venezuela, famous for its annual Three Kings Day festival, honoring the birth of Jesus Christ. The festival uses the crown as its main symbol. Despite this innocent account of his tattoo, the ICE official declared that the tattoo “conforms to that of Tren de Lagua members.”
According to documents filed in court, the tattoo led to Andry Hernandez being detained and deported to El Salvador.
The case of Neri Alvarado, a bakery who has been living in Dallas since 2023, has been deported to El Salvador for unknown reasons. As the investigation of his mother Jones discovered, after he was arrested, ice officials specifically told him that all Venezuelans were being detained and interrogated with tattoos. Alvarado’s most notable tattoo is a rainbow autism recognition tattoo in honor of his 15-year-old autistic sibling. He told his best friend that the ice guy had reviewed his tattoo and social media and told him he had no connection to Tren de Aragua, but he was detained and deported anyway. The case of Venezuelan professional footballer Jers Reyes, despite having no criminal history, was sent to El Salvador because ICE agents determined his social media image, along with his social media image of “throwing a horn,” as well as his tattoo on a soccer ball was evidence of his connection to Tren Aragua. The person who tattooed Reyes confirmed to CNN that the tattoo paid tribute to his favorite football team, Real Madrid.
These stories are just a few of the nearly 20 detailed explanations that have appeared since March 15th. A common through line for many of these is that there is no actual evidence of connection with the gang beyond tattoos, hand signs, or proximity to someone else who labels gang members. And while the White House continues to argue that there is a “strict” process to review people placed on planes, the Trump administration has so far refused to provide even one piece of evidence to support that claim, and has refusing to invoke efforts to overturn the doctrine of “national secrets” to action from judicial oversights.
As of today, there are nearly 300 people incarcerated in El Salvador on US demand. They have never been convicted of a crime that justifies their indefinite incarceration (many have no criminal history at all). They also received no legitimate procedures in the United States and were denied the opportunity to challenge the evidence presented by the government. Or they even argue that there is no evidence at all, only document errors and “administrative errors.” As evidence of misconduct appears more and more during the March 15 deportation, it is clear that a full investigation is needed.
Banner image by Comisión Interamericanade Derechos Humanos
Submitted below: El Salvador, Trump administration
