The Trump management expelled a qualified football participant to El Salvador in keeping with a tattoo that paid homage to the football membership Actual Madrid, his legal professional mentioned.
The football 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 legal professionals in numerous days and are probably being detained in an notorious Salvadoran jail.
Jerce Reyes Barrios used to be falsely known as a gang member as a result of his tattoo, his attorney mentioned — echoing a declare that a large number of legal professionals and households of the expelled migrants have asserted in contemporary days. The tattoo used to be simply an homage to the football membership Actual Madrid, the attorney mentioned.
Over the weekend, the management despatched masses of Venezuelan migrants and asylum-seekers to a brutal Salvadoran jail notorious for fashionable human rights abuses. Many have been despatched to the jail beneath the hardly ever used Alien Enemies Act, a wartime proclamation that provides presidents the ordinary energy to prison and deport other people deemed enemy fighters with out due procedure.
The Trump management asserts the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is in truth a terrorist staff and a wing of the Venezuelan state this is actively focused on an invasion of the USA. Deportations beneath the Alien Enemies Act have been paused by means of a pass judgement on — however no longer sooner than the management expelled masses of other people to El Salvador — in violation of the pass judgement on’s verbal order to divert planes again to the USA. The management has been defiant of the pass judgement on 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 pass judgement on should stay his brief restraining order in position, American Civil Liberties Union legal professional Lee Gelernt cited mavens who detailed the surprising stipulations within the Salvadoran jail device — filled with allegations of torture, human rights abuses, and enforced disappearances. The submitting famous “multiple” legal professionals who had described shoppers “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 the ones believed to had been expelled to El Salvador used to be Reyes Barrios.
In a sworn declaration filed in court docket Thursday, to accompany Gelernt’s submitting, Reyes Barrios’ legal professional Linette Tobin mentioned Reyes Barrios fled Venezuela for the USA closing yr, after he used to be tortured with electrical shocks and suffocation for protesting the authoritarian regime of the rustic’s chief, Maduro.
Reyes Barrios entered the USA, after making an appointment at the CBP One cellular phone app and presenting himself to immigration officers. He’s carried out for asylum and reduction beneath the Conference In opposition to Torture. Reyes Barrios had a listening to set for April 17, Tobin wrote.
Whilst in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, Reyes Barrios used to be positioned beneath most safety and “accused of being a Tren de Aragua gang member,” Tobin wrote. The accusation used to be in keeping with two issues, she mentioned: his tattoo, and an image of Reyes Barrios’ on social media, during which he’s creating a “Rock & Roll” hand gesture.
The tattoo, Reyes Barrios’ attorney mentioned, used to be benign. It presentations a crown sitting atop a football 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.
A screenshot from the sworn declaration of an legal professional representing Jerce Reyes Barrios, filed in federal court docket Thursday.
U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Columbia
The proof supporting Reyes Barrios’ declare that he’s no longer a gang member is essential: After filing Venezuelan paperwork indicating he had no legal document, a number of employment letters, and “a declaration from the tattoo artist who rendered the tattoo,” along a number of an identical on-line pictures, Reyes Barrios used to be got rid of from most safety detention on the facility the place he used to be to start with detained, his attorney 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.”
A DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, instructed HuffPost in an observation that Reyes Barrios “has tattoos that are consistent with those indicating TdA gang membership.”
“His own social media indicates he is a member of the vicious TdA gang,” McLaughlin mentioned, with out specifying additional. “That all said, DHS intelligence assessments go beyond a single tattoo and we are confident in our findings.”
Harrowing Declarations Describe Expulsion With out Due Procedure
Reyes Barrios’ tale is one of the terrifying accounts of migrants in the USA reputedly being classified as gang individuals — and doubtlessly being despatched to El Salvador’s brutal supermax jail referred to as CECOT with out due procedure.
Some of the different declarations filed in court docket Thursday, one guy, known by means of his legal professional as JABV, used to be known by means of his brother in a video of expelled migrants being manhandled and despatched to the jail. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a key Trump best friend, posted the video and mocked the pass judgement on’s order that used to be intended to halt the flights wearing the expelled migrants.
JABV had no removing order on the time of his removing, his attorney Osvaldo E. Caro-Cruz said — a sign he used to be most likely expelled beneath the Alien Enemies Act proclamation, which treats meant Tren de Aragua gang individuals as an invading military. Like Reyes Barrios, JABV fled Venezuela because of political persecution, his attorney mentioned. Caro-Cruz mentioned that whilst JABV used to be collaborating in non violent marketing campaign job for an opposition chief, he used to be “violently abducted” and detained for a number of days, right through which period he used to be 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 due to his political opposition.”
After fleeing to the USA and pursuing asylum, a U.S. immigration record falsely accused JABV of being a gang member, the attorney mentioned. In step with Caro-Cruz, that record said: “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.”
Actually, consistent with the legal professional, the claims of gang association 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 shopper had no legal historical past in both Venezuela or the USA. He had a listening to agenda for April 7, Caro-Cruz mentioned. However, on March 16, he realized his shopper have been got rid of from the USA with none understand to his legal professional or his circle of relatives — a habitual theme within the declarations filed Thursday.
Caro-Cruz mentioned he nonetheless had “not been informed” about his shopper’s whereabouts.
Any other guy, EV, used to be in a similar way imprisoned and tortured by means of the Venezuelan authorities after collaborating in an anti-government protest. He additionally does no longer have a removing order, his attorney Austin Thierry wrote. But ICE alleged on immigration bureaucracy that EV’s tattoos “indicate he is a member of Tren de Aragua,” the attorney recounted.
Actually, 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 in truth a tribute to his grandmother, whose “date of death appears at the base of the crown,” the attorney wrote.
Thierry mentioned he didn’t know the place EV used to be, however that he had no longer heard from him for the reason that morning of March 15, when, like others who have been expelled by means of the Trump management to El Salvador, EV have been moved to El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas.
Probably the most declarations Thursday used to be of the sister of a person believed to had 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 used to be detained right through a regimen 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 presentations a rose — and he were given it in Arlington, Texas, closing yr “because he thought it looked cool.” Her brother has two different tattoos, she mentioned — one that claims “fuerza y valiente” (“strength and courage”) and some other with a Bible verse. “I did both of these tattoos when my brother was in Texas,” she mentioned, emphasizing that additionally they had no connection to any gang, and that her brother had no legal document in both Venezuela or the USA.
Since he used to be got rid of to El Salvador, she mentioned, she has no longer heard from him, even if they’d in the past spoken nearly day-to-day right through his U.S. detention. “I am extremely concerned about the health and safety of my little brother,” she wrote.
Any other attorney, Katherine Kim, described a potential shopper, RB, whose circle of relatives member known him in a photograph of the migrants who’d been got rid of to El Salvador, in spite of him having no legal document, no removing order, and a court docket date set for March 21.
RB’s circle of relatives member “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 come with a number of from legal professionals for person plaintiffs within the lawsuit towards the Trump management — a handful of asylum-seekers in the USA who have been reputedly set to be expelled to El Salvador, however have been stored in the USA on the closing minute after U.S. District Pass judgement on James E. Boasberg halted their removals. This written order from Boasberg used to be break away his verbal order in court docket Saturday that the federal government will have to flip any planes round that have been on their approach to El Salvador — the order the Trump management defied.
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In a couple of declarations, a number of of the person plaintiffs’ legal professionals described their shoppers being despatched in shackles from El Valle Detention Facility in Texas to an area airport. As soon as there, they have been placed on 3 planes — reputedly the similar 3 planes that will later land in El Salvador. Like others, the legal professionals emphasised that their shoppers had no gang association.
However the handful of person plaintiffs have been spared — taken off the planes on the closing minute.
The legal professionals recounted that their shoppers all heard one thing an identical from an ICE officer: that they didn’t know the way fortunate they have been — that they’d all “just won the lottery.”
