Nearly a week after the Trump administration flew more than 200 Venezuelan men to El Salvador, the mass deportation is continuing to draw intense scrutiny, with a federal judge admonishing Administration officials for “evading its obligations,” and skepticism building around the allegations that all of the men were members of a dangerous gang.
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Federal District Court Judge James E. Boasberg on Thursday called the Justice Department’s filings about the deportation flights “woefully insufficient,” as he sought to determine if Trump officials had ignored his verbal order on Saturday to turn around the flights and return the men to the U.S. Instead, the men were delivered to El Salvador and the Salvadoran government quickly released photos of them dispatched to the country’s largest prison. On Thursday, Boasberg expressed frustration that Administration officials had still not fulfilled his request for details about when the flights took off from the U.S. and when they landed in El Salvador. “The government has again evaded its obligations,” Boasberg wrote. If the judge believes the government violated his instructions, he could hold the Trump administration in contempt.
Lawyers and family members of many of the deported Venezuelan men have disputed the Administration’s claims that they were members of Tren de Aragua. In a court filing this week, the Trump administration acknowledged that many of the people it has removed under the Alien Enemies Act do not have criminal records in the U.S.
Robert Cerna, an official with the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement’s field office in Harlingen, Texas, said in the filing that the men had “only been in the United States for a short period of time” but that “agency personnel carefully vetted each individual alien to ensure they were in fact members” of the gang. In a claim that strains logic, Cerna told the court that the dearth of information the government has about many of the men bolsters its assertion they are dangerous. The “lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose,” the filing states. “It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
Among the deported men with no apparent criminal record was Jerce Reyes Barrios, a 35-year-old Venezuelan and former professional soccer player who had sought asylum in the U.S. after he was electrocuted and suffocated following a protest against the repressive actions of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Reyes Barrios’ lawyer asserted in a court filing that border officials had incorrectly determined he was a member of a gang by misreading his tattoo and a hand symbol in a photo.
“The Trump administration is willing to toss aside due process for splashy deportation theater,” says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. “This is something that should make every American afraid.”
Some of Trump’s loudest supporters seemed unsurprised that some of those swept up in deportations and jailed in El Salvador had no criminal record. “Guess what, if there are some innocent gardeners in there, hey, tough break for a swell guy,” Steve Bannon said Monday on his show War Room. “That’s where we stand. We’re getting these criminals out of the United States.”
Stephen Miller told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the Trump Administration didn’t need to wait for a crime to be committed before deporting someone. “Our job is to send the terrorists out before anyone else gets raped or murdered,” Miller said. He sidestepped a follow-up on whether the Administration would present additional evidence that all those deported were part of Tren de Aragua.
Reyes Barrios originally dealt with Biden administration officials when he fled to the U.S. in September. Once in Mexico he made an appointment on the CBP One app to present himself to CBP officials at the border. He was initially placed in a “maximum security” section of the detention facility at Otay Mesa Detention Facility in California, and accused of being a Tren de Aragua gang member.
Border officials made that determination, his attorney Linette Tobin wrote in a sworn declaration, because of a tattoo that features a crown on top of a soccer ball that was based on the logo for his favorite soccer team, Real Madrid; and a photo on social media of him posing with his fingers spayed out like horns—a hand gesture with multiple non-gang-related connotations. Working with an immigration attorney, Reyes Barrios applied for asylum in December and was set to appear before a judge at the Otay Mesa Immigration court on April 17. Reyes Barrios was moved out of the maximum security prison after his lawyer presented immigration officials with employment letters, a police clearance from Venezuela showing no criminal record, an explanation of the meaning of the hand gesture and a declaration from the tattoo artist about the meaning of the image.
Reyes Barrios’ hopes of pleading his case in immigration court evaporated once the Trump administration took over. In early March, Reyes Barrios was transferred from Otay Mesa in California to Texas without his attorney being notified. On March 15, he was deported to El Salvador, 1,500 miles from his homeland of Venezuela. Three days later, his immigration attorney was able to reach an ICE official who confirmed that his client was in a prison in another country.