A Venezuelan mom desperately in search of her son after U.S. immigration officers detained him says she noticed him shackled on TV amongst loads of migrants the Trump management has accused of being violent gang individuals and despatched to a Salvadoran jail.
“It’s him. It’s him,” an emotional Mirelis Casique instructed the BBC of getting noticed her 24-year-old son, Francisco Javier Garcia Casique, in footage of restrained males in all-white clothes and newly shaved heads. “I recognize his features.”
Casique stated her son entered the U.S. in past due 2023 to hunt asylum. He introduced himself to government on the border and was once launched, however was once then in short detained in Texas final yr following a regimen look with immigration officials once they noticed his tattoos, she instructed The New York Occasions.
Jail guards in Tecoluca, El Salvador, restrain males the U.S. claims are individuals of the Tren De Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha gangs.
The ones tattoos integrated the phrase “peace” in Spanish, some circle of relatives names, and a crown. They brought on U.S. government to label Garcia Casique a suspected gang member and take him into custody for 2 months ahead of freeing him with an digital track.
On Feb. 6, regulation enforcement government got here to Garcia Casique’s door and took him again into custody, his mom stated.
“He doesn’t belong to any criminal gang, either in the U.S. or in Venezuela… he’s not a criminal,” she instructed The BBC. “What he’s been is a barber.”
A person figuring out himself as Garcia Casique’s brother additionally shared footage of him reducing hair on social media whilst insisting that his brother is blameless and wrongfully incarcerated.
“What injustice is this? For having tattoos? Why didn’t they investigate him? Why didn’t they send him to his country of origin?” his brother wrote with the footage. “Respect the human rights of innocent people.”
The U.S. and Salvadoran governments have no longer presented any proof appearing that the deported migrants are hooked up to the Tren de Aragua gang, which has been designated as a terrorist staff by way of President Donald Trump.
In a court docket submitting, officers stated that most of the folks despatched to El Salvador do not need prison data, although they claimed this “does not indicate they pose a limited threat.”
“The lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose,” the management stated in a sworn declaration.
A guard provides instructions on March 16 to inmates despatched from the U.S. to a most safety jail in El Salvador once they had been accused of being connected to prison organizations.
In spite of the plain loss of due procedure and evidence that the migrants are gang individuals, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele stated they are going to be imprisoned for a minimum of a yr and compelled to accomplish hard work below a program known as “Zero Idleness.” This program is designed to make the rustic’s jail machine, which prices $200 million a yr to run, self-sustaining, Bukele stated.
“As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime. But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place,” he stated in a remark posted on social media.
Different members of the family of the imprisoned migrants have made an identical pleas for assist, insisting that their family members were mistakenly recognized as gang individuals and despatched to the maximum-security Salvadoran jail.
Nowadays, the primary 238 individuals of the Venezuelan prison group, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our nation. They had been instantly transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Heart, for a duration of 1 yr (renewable).
America can pay an overly low price for them,… percent.twitter.com/tfsi8cgpD6
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 16, 2025
“He has lots of tattoos, but that’s not a reason to discriminate against him,” Johanny Sánchez instructed The Washington Publish of her Venezuelan husband, Franco Caraballo, whom she stated was once amongst the ones deported from Texas to El Salvador.
Some other Venezuelan mom instructed the Publish that her son, Ali David Navas Vizcaya, vanished after being instructed final week that he was once going to be deported to Venezuela or Mexico. He was once detained in early 2024 after showing for an appointment with immigration officials on the U.S.-Mexico border, she stated.
“He told me, ‘Finally, we’re going to be together, and this nightmare is going to be over,’” his mom, Xiomara Vizcaya, who lives within the northern Venezuelan town of Barquisimeto, stated of her son’s final telephone name to her on Friday.
El Salvador’s president has stated that the boys might be imprisoned for a minimum of a yr and compelled to accomplish hard work.
His brother, like many others, stated Yamarte was once misidentified as a gang member only on account of his tattoos.
The sister of migrant Fritzgeralth De Jesus stated the similar about her brother.
On Wednesday, an legal professional for detained Venezuelan football participant Jerce Reyes Barrios accused U.S. government of deporting him to El Salvador on account of his tattoos and a photograph of him making hand gestures, which the legal professional stated imply “rock and roll” or “I love you.”
His tattoos come with a crown on most sensible of a football ball with a rosary and the phrase “Dios,” this means that “God” in Spanish, the legal professional stated in a court docket submitting.
