The Trump administration expelled an expert soccer participant to El Salvador primarily based on a tattoo that paid homage to the soccer membership Actual Madrid, his lawyer mentioned.
The soccer participant fled Venezuela after protesting authoritarian chief Nicolás Maduro — however now he’s one among a number of former U.S. migrants who haven’t contacted buddies or attorneys in a number of days and are presumably being detained in an notorious Salvadoran jail.
Jerce Reyes Barrios was falsely recognized as a gang member due to his tattoo, his lawyer mentioned — echoing a declare that quite a few legal professionals and households of the expelled migrants have asserted in latest days. The tattoo was merely an homage to the soccer membership Actual Madrid, the lawyer mentioned.
Over the weekend, the administration despatched a whole lot of Venezuelan migrants and asylum-seekers to a brutal Salvadoran jail notorious for widespread human rights abuses. Many had been despatched to the jail below the not often used Alien Enemies Act, a wartime proclamation that offers presidents the extraordinary energy to jail and deport folks deemed enemy combatants with out due course of.
The Trump administration asserts the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is definitely a terrorist group and a wing of the Venezuelan state that’s actively concerned in an invasion of the USA. Deportations below the Alien Enemies Act had been paused by a decide — however not earlier than the administration expelled a whole lot of individuals to El Salvador — in violation of the decide’s verbal order to divert planes again to the USA. The administration has been defiant of the decide for days, and it continues to name for an finish to his restraining order on additional flights to El Salvador.
In a submitting arguing that the decide must preserve his momentary restraining order in place, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt cited specialists who detailed the surprising situations within the Salvadoran jail system — stuffed with allegations of torture, human rights abuses, and enforced disappearances. The submitting famous “multiple” attorneys who had described purchasers “who were suddenly and without notice transferred to Texas, and removed to El Salvador despite upcoming asylum hearings and strong claims to that relief.”
“If the President can label any group as enemy aliens under the Act, and that designation is unreviewable, then there is no limit on who can be sent to a Salvadoran prison,” the submitting argued.
Amongst these believed to have been expelled to El Salvador was Reyes Barrios.
In a sworn declaration filed in courtroom Thursday, to accompany Gelernt’s submitting, Reyes Barrios’ lawyer Linette Tobin mentioned Reyes Barrios fled Venezuela for the USA final 12 months, after he was tortured with electrical shocks and suffocation for protesting the authoritarian regime of the nation’s chief, Maduro.
Reyes Barrios entered the USA, after making an appointment on the CBP One cellphone app and presenting himself to immigration officers. He’s utilized for asylum and reduction below the Conference Towards Torture. Reyes Barrios had a listening to set for April 17, Tobin wrote.
Whereas in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, Reyes Barrios was positioned below most safety and “accused of being a Tren de Aragua gang member,” Tobin wrote. The accusation was primarily based on two issues, she mentioned: his tattoo, and an image of Reyes Barrios’ on social media, during which he’s making a “Rock & Roll” hand gesture.
The tattoo, Reyes Barrios’ lawyer mentioned, was benign. It reveals a crown sitting atop a soccer ball and the phrase “Dios,” or “God.”
“DHS alleges that this tattoo is proof of gang membership. In reality, he chose this tattoo because it is similar to the logo for his favorite soccer team Real Madrid,” she wrote.
U.S. District Court docket for the District of Columbia
The proof supporting Reyes Barrios’ declare that he’s not a gang member is important: After submitting Venezuelan paperwork indicating he had no legal file, a number of employment letters, and “a declaration from the tattoo artist who rendered the tattoo,” alongside a number of related on-line pictures, Reyes Barrios was faraway from most safety detention on the facility the place he was initially detained, his lawyer mentioned.
“Nevertheless,” Tobin wrote, “on March 10th or 11th, he was transferred from Otay Mesa [Detention Facility] to Texas without notice.”
Then, she wrote, “he was deported to El Salvador. Counsel and Family have lost all contact with him and have no information regarding his whereabouts or condition.”
Trump administration officers didn’t instantly reply HuffPost’s questions on declarations from Reyes Barrios’ or different migrants’ attorneys.
Harrowing Declarations Describe Expulsion With out Due Course of
Reyes Barrios’ story is one among many terrifying accounts of migrants in the USA seemingly being labeled as gang members — and doubtlessly being despatched to El Salvador’s brutal supermax jail generally known as CECOT with out due course of.
Among the many different declarations filed in courtroom Thursday, one man, recognized by his lawyer as JABV, was acknowledged by his brother in a video of expelled migrants being manhandled and despatched to the jail. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a key Trump ally, posted the video and mocked the decide’s order that was meant to halt the flights carrying the expelled migrants.
JABV had no elimination order on the time of his elimination, his lawyer Osvaldo E. Caro-Cruz acknowledged — a sign he was seemingly expelled below the Alien Enemies Act proclamation, which treats supposed Tren de Aragua gang members as an invading military. Like Reyes Barrios, JABV fled Venezuela resulting from political persecution, his lawyer mentioned. Caro-Cruz mentioned that whereas JABV was collaborating in peaceable marketing campaign exercise for an opposition chief, he was “violently abducted” and detained for a number of days, throughout which era he was tortured, disadvantaged of meals and assaulted. Caro-Cruz famous he had video of Venezuelan police raiding JABV’s dwelling, “confirming that he was being actively persecuted by the Maduro regime due to his political opposition.”
After fleeing to the USA and pursuing asylum, a U.S. immigration doc falsely accused JABV of being a gang member, the lawyer mentioned. In response to Caro-Cruz, that doc acknowledged: “Subject has gang-related tattoos which were photographed by [Customs and Border Protection Officer] Clesi. The tattoos are well-known tattoos that Tren de Aragua gang members tend to have. Subject denied being part of Tren de Aragua or any other gang.”
In reality, in line with the lawyer, the claims of gang affiliation are “entirely speculative and unsubstantiated.”
“His tattoos are a Rose, a Clock and a Crown with his son’s name on it. These are common in Venezuela and bear no exclusive association with gang affiliation,” he wrote, including that his consumer had no legal historical past in both Venezuela or the USA. He had a listening to schedule for April 7, Caro-Cruz mentioned. Nonetheless, on March 16, he discovered his consumer had been faraway from the USA with none discover to his lawyer or his household — a recurring theme within the declarations filed Thursday.
Caro-Cruz mentioned he nonetheless had “not been informed” about his consumer’s whereabouts.
One other man, EV, was equally imprisoned and tortured by the Venezuelan authorities after collaborating in an anti-government protest. He additionally doesn’t have a elimination order, his lawyer Austin Thierry wrote. But ICE alleged on immigration paperwork that EV’s tattoos “indicate he is a member of Tren de Aragua,” the lawyer recounted.
In reality, Thierry mentioned, “EV has various tattoos, such as tattoos of anime, flowers, and animals, that he chose to get for personal and artistic reasons.” A crown tattoo that “may be why ICE falsely accused him of gang membership,” is definitely a tribute to his grandmother, whose “date of death appears at the base of the crown,” the lawyer wrote.
Thierry mentioned he didn’t know the place EV was, however that he had not heard from him because the morning of March 15, when, like others who had been expelled by the Trump administration to El Salvador, EV had been moved to El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas.
One of many declarations Thursday was of the sister of a person believed to have been despatched to El Savador. Solanyer Michell Sarabia Gonzalez wrote that she and her 19-year-old brother, Anyelo Jose Sarabia, are each asylum-seekers who arrived in the USA from Venezuela in 2023. Her brother was detained throughout a routine ICE check-in in January, she wrote, and “the officers asked me whether my brother belonged to a gang and about a tattoo that is visible on his hand.”
Her brother had by no means been a part of any gang, she mentioned. The tattoo on his hand reveals a rose — and he acquired it in Arlington, Texas, final 12 months “because he thought it looked cool.” Her brother has two different tattoos, she mentioned — one that claims “fuerza y valiente” (“strength and courage”) and one other with a Bible verse. “I did both of these tattoos when my brother was in Texas,” she mentioned, emphasizing that in addition they had no connection to any gang, and that her brother had no legal file in both Venezuela or the USA.
Since he was eliminated to El Salvador, she mentioned, she has not heard from him, although they’d beforehand spoken nearly each day throughout his U.S. detention. “I am extremely concerned about the health and safety of my little brother,” she wrote.
One other lawyer, Katherine Kim, described a potential consumer, RB, whose member of the family acknowledged him in a photograph of the migrants who’d been eliminated to El Salvador, regardless of him having no legal file, no elimination order, and a courtroom date set for March 21.
RB’s member of the family “believes that the government has falsely accused him of membership in Tren de Aragua based on a single tattoo, which is of a flower.”
Thursday’s declarations additionally embody a number of from legal professionals for particular person plaintiffs within the lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration — a handful of asylum-seekers in the USA who had been seemingly set to be expelled to El Salvador, however had been saved in the USA on the final minute after U.S. District Choose James E. Boasberg halted their removals. This written order from Boasberg was separate from his verbal order in courtroom Saturday that the federal government ought to flip any planes round that had been on their method to El Salvador — the order the Trump administration defied.
In a number of declarations, a number of of the person plaintiffs’ attorneys described their purchasers being despatched in shackles from El Valle Detention Facility in Texas to an area airport. As soon as there, they had been placed on three planes — seemingly the identical three planes that will later land in El Salvador. Like others, the legal professionals emphasised that their purchasers had no gang affiliation.
However the handful of particular person plaintiffs had been spared — taken off the planes on the final minute.
The attorneys recounted that their purchasers all heard one thing related from an ICE officer: that they didn’t understand how fortunate they had been — that that they had all “just won the lottery.”
