Relatives of recently deported Venezuelan immigrants said they were anguished and shocked to discover their loved ones were sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador after they recognized them in a social media video.
The families strongly deny that their relatives are connected to the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua, a claim the Trump administration has used to justify their quick deportations under a rarely used law from 1798, the Alien Enemies Act. They say their family members have been falsely accused and targeted because of their tattoos.
The families also said they never expected their loved ones to be sent to a massive prison in El Salvador instead of their home country, Venezuela.
The White House said in a statement Tuesday that it was “confident in DHS intelligence assessments on these gang affiliations and criminality,” adding that the Venezuelan immigrants who were removed from the United States had final orders of deportation.
“This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law,” the statement said.
Relatives of Mervin Yamarte, 29, said they were horrified to see him in a social media video showing men shackled as authorities dragged them from planes and shaved their heads in preparation to take them to prison.
The men were sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a lockup known for allegations of human rights abuses. Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented issues including extreme overcrowding and torture at the prison.
The video, released by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, claims the men were Venezuelan gang members deported from the United States.
Anayel Miquelina, a relative of Yamarte’s, told Telemundo that Yamarte’s mother and wife were distraught when they saw him in the video with his shirt ripped and head shaved.
“They fainted. They started screaming,” she said.
The Trump administration announced the deportations this weekend of hundreds of immigrants it alleged were members of the gang to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, which allows the president to deport noncitizens during wartime.
In court documents, an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday that many of those who were removed from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act “do not have criminal records in the United States.”
The official said that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and that the government does not have a “complete profile” of alleged gang members who were deported to El Salvador.
Yamarte’s family said that he had an open asylum case with a hearing set for July and that he does not have a criminal record and was not connected to Tren de Aragua.
A check of criminal records in the city of Irving, Dallas County and the state of Texas, as well as federal court records, by NBC News did not find any charges or convictions for Yamarte. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for more information on whether he had a criminal background.
“We didn’t come to do harm to anybody. It’s not fair that because of a tattoo they involve us with a very crooked criminal gang,” said Juan Yamarte, his brother.
Juan Yamarte said his brother has the same tattoo as a soccer player he admires and the number 99 — the number he has used as a member of a recreational soccer team. He also has tattoos of his mother’s and daughter’s names, as well as the date he and his partner began dating, another brother told Telemundo. None of his tattoos are gang-related, the family said.
Juan Yamarte said his brother had been in the United States for more than a year before immigration officials took him last week at a home he shared with several other people.
“They grabbed him. They cuffed him all at once when he said, ‘Why are you taking me, too, if I haven’t done anything?’” he said.
On Monday, Yamarte’s family and others in his hometown, Maracaibo, Venezuela, held a protest and a prayer vigil.
Several other families told NBC News they believe they saw their relatives in the video released by El Salvador. They claim their loved ones have been falsely accused of having gang connections.
“He is a good kid. He has never committed a crime; he doesn’t have a criminal record,” the sister of Fritzgeralth De Jesus, one of the Venezuelans she says was deported to El Salvador, said as she cried uncontrollably. “He is young, hard-working and an athlete.”
De Jesus’ sister, who asked not to be identified because of fear of deportation, said she received a call from her brother, who had been detained by ICE officials, on Saturday “to say goodbye” because he was going to be deported to Venezuela.
She grew increasingly worried when she did not hear from him, and she began to scour the internet hoping to find a clue to where he could be. She said she spotted him in Bukele’s video, which had gone viral on social media.
De Jesus, 25, entered the United States through the CBP One app in June, along with three other relatives, his sister said. The three family members were released into the United States right away, but De Jesus was sent to an immigration detention center in New Orleans, where he remained until he was deported, she said. It is unclear why De Jesus was detained; his family believes it may have been because of his tattoos.
“They detained him just because he has tattoos,” De Jesus’ sister said. “From the beginning, they asked constantly about his tattoos. They would ask him if he was a member of the criminal gang, Tren de Aragua, and he always said no.”
She said none of her brother’s tattoos are gang-affiliated. Some of the more prominent ones include rose art on his neck and arm, an angel on his chest and a tattoo that says “mom” on his chest.
De Jesus had left Venezuela because “colectivos,” armed paramilitary groups that support President Nicolás Maduro, were harassing and extorting him, his sister said.
Joseph Giardina, an attorney based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is representing De Jesus in his asylum case, was stunned to learn his client had been deported to El Salvador. The final hearing in his asylum case was scheduled for April 10.
When Giardina heard De Jesus had been deported, he checked online and saw that his asylum hearing was still pending. He thought there must have been a mix-up.
“With a pending asylum application and a trial, that would make absolutely no sense,” Giardina said. “I’ve been doing this for years. That’s not how it works.”
“He has been in proceedings for months. The government has never filed an I-213, which would indicate any criminal background. They have never filed any evidence of any kind of criminal history,” Giardina said.
Mirelys Casique told Telemundo her family recognized her son, Francisco García Casique, in a photo released by the government of El Salvador. She said that while the man in the image was looking down, the family was able to identify him because of his tattoos.
“He’s not a criminal. He has no criminal record,” she said, adding that if the government was going to deport her son, “they should send him back to his country of origin.”
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act this weekend, and on Saturday, a federal judge issued a restraining order blocking him from using it to justify the deportations and ordered any planes that were already in the air to turn around.
In court documents, officials said three planes left the United States after Trump issued his proclamation, raising questions about the timing of the flights and the custody handover.
A federal judge reviewing the case Tuesday asked the administration for further details about the flights and which immigrants were deported solely based on the Alien Enemies Act.
The Venezuelan government has since publicly condemned the detention of its citizens in El Salvador and issued a travel warning to those in the United States and those planning to travel abroad.
“We are calling on the international community to stay alert against these practices that serve against human dignity and the principles of international rights,” Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement Monday.
