The Trump administration expelled knowledgeable soccer participant to El Salvador primarily based on a tattoo that paid homage to the soccer membership Actual Madrid, his lawyer stated.
The soccer participant fled Venezuela after protesting authoritarian chief Nicolás Maduro — however now he’s one in every of 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 stated — echoing a declare that quite a few lawyers and families of the expelled migrants have asserted in current days. The tattoo was merely an homage to the soccer membership Actual Madrid, the lawyer stated.
Over the weekend, the administration despatched tons of of Venezuelan migrants and asylum-seekers to a brutal Salvadoran jail notorious for widespread human rights abuses. Many had been despatched to the jail beneath the hardly ever used Alien Enemies Act, a wartime proclamation that provides presidents the extraordinary energy to jail and deport individuals 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 america. Deportations beneath the Alien Enemies Act had been paused by a decide — however not earlier than the administration expelled tons of of individuals to El Salvador — in violation of the decide’s verbal order to divert planes again to america. 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 non permanent restraining order in place, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt cited consultants who detailed the shocking conditions within the Salvadoran jail system — stuffed with allegations of torture, human rights abuses, and enforced disappearances. The submitting famous “a number of” attorneys who had described shoppers “who had been abruptly and with out discover transferred to Texas, and eliminated to El Salvador regardless of upcoming asylum hearings and robust claims to that reduction.”
“If the President can label any group as enemy aliens beneath the Act, and that designation is unreviewable, then there isn’t any restrict on who will be despatched to a Salvadoran jail,” 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 stated Reyes Barrios fled Venezuela for america final yr, after he was tortured with electrical shocks and suffocation for protesting the authoritarian regime of the nation’s chief, Maduro.
Reyes Barrios entered america, after making an appointment on the CBP One cellphone app and presenting himself to immigration officers. He’s utilized for asylum and reduction beneath the Convention Against Torture. Reyes Barrios had a listening to set for April 17, Tobin wrote.
Whereas in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, Reyes Barrios was positioned beneath most safety and “accused of being a Tren de Aragua gang member,” Tobin wrote. The accusation was primarily based on two issues, she stated: 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 stated, 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 actuality, he selected this tattoo as a result of it’s just like the emblem for his favourite soccer staff Actual Madrid,” she wrote.
The proof supporting Reyes Barrios’ declare that he’s not a gang member is critical: After submitting Venezuelan paperwork indicating he had no prison document, a number of employment letters, and “a declaration from the tattoo artist who rendered the tattoo,” alongside a number of comparable on-line photos, Reyes Barrios was faraway from most safety detention on the facility the place he was initially detained, his lawyer stated.
“Nonetheless,” Tobin wrote, “on March tenth or eleventh, he was transferred from Otay Mesa [Detention Facility] to Texas with out discover.”
Then, she wrote, “he was deported to El Salvador. Counsel and Household have misplaced all contact with him and haven’t any data relating to his whereabouts or situation.”
Reyes Barrios’ uncle wrote on Fb that “We had been shocked to see him within the movies being launched on social media of these deported to El Salvador,” DropSite News reported.
A DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, informed HuffPost in an assertion that Reyes Barrios “has tattoos which are according to these indicating TdA gang membership.”
“His personal social media signifies he’s a member of the vicious TdA gang,” McLaughlin stated, with out specifying additional. “That each one stated, DHS intelligence assessments transcend a single tattoo and we’re assured in our findings.”
Harrowing Declarations Describe Expulsion With out Due Course of
Reyes Barrios’ story is one in every of many terrifying accounts of migrants in america seemingly being labeled as gang members — and probably being despatched to El Salvador’s brutal supermax jail often known as CECOT with out due course of.
Among the many different declarations filed in courtroom Thursday, one man, identified by his attorney 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 said — a sign he was probably expelled beneath the Alien Enemies Act proclamation, which treats supposed Tren de Aragua gang members as an invading military. Like Reyes Barrios, JABV fled Venezuela because of political persecution, his lawyer stated. Caro-Cruz stated that whereas JABV was taking part in peaceable marketing campaign exercise for an opposition chief, he was “violently kidnapped” and detained for a number of days, throughout which period he was tortured, disadvantaged of meals and assaulted. Caro-Cruz famous he had video of Venezuelan police raiding JABV’s house, “confirming that he was being actively persecuted by the Maduro regime because of his political opposition.”
After fleeing to america and pursuing asylum, a U.S. immigration doc falsely accused JABV of being a gang member, the lawyer stated. In accordance with Caro-Cruz, that doc said: “Topic has gang-related tattoos which had been photographed by [Customs and Border Protection Officer] Clesi. The tattoos are well-known tattoos that Tren de Aragua gang members are inclined to have. Topic denied being a part of Tren de Aragua or every other gang.”
In actual fact, in keeping with the lawyer, the claims of gang affiliation are “fully speculative and unsubstantiated.”
“His tattoos are a Rose, a Clock and a Crown together with his son’s identify on it. These are frequent in Venezuela and bear no unique affiliation with gang affiliation,” he wrote, including that his consumer had no prison historical past in both Venezuela or america. He had a listening to schedule for April 7, Caro-Cruz stated. Nonetheless, on March 16, he realized his consumer had been faraway from america with none discover to his lawyer or his household — a recurring theme within the declarations filed Thursday.
Caro-Cruz stated he nonetheless had “not been knowledgeable” about his consumer’s whereabouts.
One other man, EV, was equally imprisoned and tortured by the Venezuelan authorities after taking part 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 “point out he’s a member of Tren de Aragua,” the lawyer recounted.
In actual fact, Thierry stated, “EV has varied tattoos, similar to tattoos of anime, flowers, and animals, that he selected to get for private and inventive causes.” A crown tattoo that “could also be why ICE falsely accused him of gang membership,” is definitely a tribute to his grandmother, whose “date of loss of life seems on the base of the crown,” the lawyer wrote.
Thierry stated 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 america from Venezuela in 2023. Her brother was detained throughout a routine ICE check-in in January, she wrote, and “the officers requested me whether or not my brother belonged to a gang and a few tattoo that’s seen on his hand.”
Her brother had by no means been a part of any gang, she stated. The tattoo on his hand reveals a rose — and he received it in Arlington, Texas, final yr “as a result of he thought it appeared cool.” Her brother has two different tattoos, she stated — one that claims “fuerza y valiente” (“energy and braveness”) and one other with a Bible verse. “I did each of those tattoos when my brother was in Texas,” she stated, emphasizing that additionally they had no connection to any gang, and that her brother had no prison document in both Venezuela or america.
Since he was eliminated to El Salvador, she stated, she has not heard from him, despite the fact that they’d beforehand spoken nearly every day throughout his U.S. detention. “I’m extraordinarily involved in regards to the well being and security 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 prison document, no elimination order, and a courtroom date set for March 21.
RB’s member of the family “believes that the federal government has falsely accused him of membership in Tren de Aragua primarily based on a single tattoo, which is of a flower.”
Thursday’s declarations additionally embrace a number of from attorneys for particular person plaintiffs within the lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration — a handful of asylum-seekers in america who had been seemingly set to be expelled to El Salvador, however had been stored in america 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 solution to El Salvador — the order the Trump administration defied.
In multiple declarations, a number of of the person plaintiffs’ attorneys described their shoppers being despatched in shackles from El Valle Detention Facility in Texas to a neighborhood airport. As soon as there, they had been placed on three planes — seemingly the identical three planes that may later land in El Salvador. Like others, the attorneys emphasised that their shoppers 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 shoppers all heard one thing comparable from an ICE officer: that they didn’t know the way fortunate they had been — that that they had all “simply received the lottery.”
