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 certainly one of a number of former U.S. migrants who haven’t contacted pals 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 numerous 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 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 have been despatched to the jail beneath the hardly ever used Alien Enemies Act, a wartime proclamation that offers 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 the US. Deportations beneath the Alien Enemies Act have been paused by a decide — however not earlier than the administration expelled hundreds of people to El Salvador — in violation of the decide’s verbal order to divert planes again to the US. 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 specialists who detailed the shocking conditions within the Salvadoran jail system — filled with allegations of torture, human rights abuses, and enforced disappearances. The submitting famous “a number of” attorneys who had described purchasers “who have been all of the sudden and with out discover transferred to Texas, and eliminated to El Salvador regardless of upcoming asylum hearings and powerful claims to that aid.”
“If the President can label any group as enemy aliens beneath the Act, and that designation is unreviewable, then there isn’t a restrict on who could 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 mentioned Reyes Barrios fled Venezuela for the US 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 US, after making an appointment on the CBP One cellphone app and presenting himself to immigration officers. He’s utilized for asylum and aid 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 mentioned: his tattoo, and an image of Reyes Barrios’ on social media, by which he’s making a “Rock & Roll” hand gesture.
The tattoo, Reyes Barrios’ lawyer mentioned, was benign. It exhibits 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 much like the emblem for his favourite soccer group Actual Madrid,” she wrote.
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The proof supporting Reyes Barrios’ declare that he’s not a gang member is critical: After submitting Venezuelan paperwork indicating he had no legal report, 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 mentioned.
“However,” 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 Facebook that “We have been stunned 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, advised HuffPost in an assertion that Reyes Barrios “has tattoos which can be in step with these indicating TdA gang membership.”
“His personal social media signifies he’s a member of the vicious TdA gang,” McLaughlin mentioned, with out specifying additional. “That each one mentioned, 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 certainly one of many terrifying accounts of migrants in the US seemingly being labeled as gang members — and probably being despatched to El Salvador’s brutal supermax jail referred to 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 removing order on the time of his removing, his lawyer Osvaldo E. Caro-Cruz acknowledged — a sign he was seemingly 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 mentioned. Caro-Cruz mentioned 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 dwelling, “confirming that he was being actively persecuted by the Maduro regime because of his political opposition.”
After fleeing to the US 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: “Topic has gang-related tattoos which have been photographed by [Customs and Border Protection Officer] Clesi. The tattoos are well-known tattoos that Tren de Aragua gang members are likely to have. Topic denied being a part of Tren de Aragua or some other gang.”
Actually, in response to the lawyer, the claims of gang affiliation are “solely speculative and unsubstantiated.”
“His tattoos are a Rose, a Clock and a Crown together with his son’s title on it. These are widespread in Venezuela and bear no unique affiliation with gang affiliation,” he wrote, including that his shopper had no legal historical past in both Venezuela or the US. He had a listening to schedule for April 7, Caro-Cruz mentioned. Nonetheless, on March 16, he discovered his shopper had been faraway from the US 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 knowledgeable” about his shopper’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 removing 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.
Actually, Thierry mentioned, “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 demise seems on 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 for the reason that morning of March 15, when, like others who have 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 US 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 mentioned. The tattoo on his hand exhibits a rose — and he obtained it in Arlington, Texas, final 12 months “as a result of he thought it regarded cool.” Her brother has two different tattoos, she mentioned — one that claims “fuerza y valiente” (“power and braveness”) and one other with a Bible verse. “I did each of those 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 report in both Venezuela or the US.
Since he was eliminated to El Salvador, she mentioned, 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 concerning the well being and security of my little brother,” she wrote.
One other lawyer, Katherine Kim, described a potential shopper, 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 report, no removing 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 embody a number of from attorneys for particular person plaintiffs within the lawsuit towards the Trump administration — a handful of asylum-seekers in the US who have been seemingly set to be expelled to El Salvador, however have been saved in the US on the final minute after U.S. District Decide 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 have been on their technique to El Salvador — the order the Trump administration defied.
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In multiple declarations, a number of of the person plaintiffs’ attorneys described their purchasers being despatched in shackles from El Valle Detention Facility in Texas to a neighborhood airport. As soon as there, they have been placed on three planes — seemingly the identical three planes that will later land in El Salvador. Like others, the attorneys emphasised that their purchasers had no gang affiliation.
However the handful of particular person plaintiffs have been spared — taken off the planes on the final minute.
The attorneys recounted that their purchasers all heard one thing comparable from an ICE officer: that they didn’t know the way fortunate they have been — that they’d all “simply gained the lottery.”
