Author: Julie Turkewitz, Jazmine Ulloa, Isayen Herrera, Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Published on: 15/04/2025 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
Nathali Sánchez last heard from her husband on March 14 when he called from a Texas detention center to say he was being deported back to Venezuela. Later that night, he texted her through a government messaging app for detainees. But less than a day later, Mr. Suárez was shackled, loaded onto a plane and sent to a maximum-security prison. The act has only been invoked three times in American history, experts say. And in this case, the Venezuelan men were declared “alien enemies” and shipped to a prison with little or no opportunity to contest the allegations against them. Most of the men do not have criminal records in the United States or elsewhere in the region, beyond immigration offenses. All nine Supreme Court justices said targeted individuals must be given time to contest their removal before they’re expelled. In court, the administration has argued that the men can still challenge their incarceration. “They should stay there for the rest of their lives,” the homeland security secretary said last week. Prosecutors, law enforcement officials, court documents and media reports that The Times uncovered or spoke to in multiple countries suggested that only a few of the detainees might have had any connection to Tren de Aragua. At least 32 of the men sent to El Salvador have faced serious criminal accusations or convictions in the United States or abroad. One has a homicide conviction in Venezuela, according to court documents. All 238 men will spend at least a year in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. The United States is paying the government of El Salvador to incarcerate the prisoners. On X, the Salvadoran leader called the yearlong sentence “renewable” The U.S. Government’s use of the alien act is now the subject of an intense court battle. Officials from I.CE. Seized Francisco Garca Casique, 24, a barber, at his home in Austin, Texas. They grabbed Gustavo Aguilera Agüero, 27, an Uber driver, while he was working on his car in a driveway outside Dallas. In 2014, he joined mass protests against the country’s authoritarian government. Mr. Suárez entered the United States on Sept. 3 using a Biden-era application. In North Carolina, he worked in landscaping, said his brother Nelson. On Dec. 2, his daughter was born in Chile. On Jan. 20, Mr. Trump became president. In an interview, Mr. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said tattoos were just one factor used to determine if an individual was a member of Tren de Aragua. The document instructs immigration officials to use a point system to identify members. Wearing clothing associated with the gang is worth another four points. On March 14 and 15, the men called their families to say that Americans officials had told them they were being deported back to Venezuela. By now, three flights carrying the 238 men had arrived in El Salvador, despite a judge’s order that the Trump administration turn them around. Mr. Suárez’s wife pulled up an image of a sea of shaved, cuffed men in Salvadoran prison. Legal analysts say the Alien Enemies Act has been used with so little due process. Many scholars have criticized that process as deeply flawed. In Venezuela, families have gathered for marches calling for the release of loved ones. Edgar Trejo, a pastor in Caracas, believed that the United States was “God’s policeman on earth” In Venezuela, the family had become accustomed to people being carted away with no trial. Reporting was contributed by Pascale Bonnefoy, Sheyla Urdaneta, Susan C. Beachy, Kirsten Noyes and Sheelagh McNeill. Julie Turkewitz is the Andes Bureau Chief for The Times based in Bogotá, Colombia. The Trump Administration’s First 100 Days Campus Crackdown: President Trump’s pressure campaign on universities has upended higher education. Immigration: Geo Group, a private prison firm that makes digital tools to track immigrants, has become one of the Trump administration’s big business winners as its tech is increasingly used in deportations.
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