PROPUBLICA is a non -profit editorial staff that investigates the abuse of power. Sign up for getting Our biggest stories As soon as they are published. This article is issued with Texas TribuneNonprofit, non -partisan local edition that informs and interacts with Texas, and Alianza Rebelde Restiga and Fake news.
Four months ago, the relocation of Trump administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan migrants to the maximum security prison in Salvador, known as Sycot, took not only the people but also their families. The men were released in Venezuela on July 18 as part of the prisoner’s replacement without much explanation, and they and their relatives began to share the details of their trials.
Juan Jose Ramas Ramos describes the physical torture he said he had survived during his imprisonment as his mother Lina Ramos explains the emotional agony, not knowing whether she would see her son again. Andrew Bonil Bonila and his mother Carmen Bonila still struggled to understand how they could be caught up when the form had no criminal record and, in fact, was the order of deportation to return to their native country. Wilmer Vega Sandi, who moved to the US to find a job that would help him pay for his mother cancer treatment, says he prayed every day from his imprisonment that he would make her home on time to hold her in his arms.
Without providing evidence, the US government called them all members of the Tren de Aragua gang, “the worst of the worst”, “sick animals” and “monsters”. Our reporting, the first of its kind, the exam in each case, shows as Government Most of them were not convicted of crime in the US – and only a few were serious beliefs such as attack and storage. We found a dozen or so that had a criminal record abroad and included ours also a comprehensive database.
Almost half, 118 of more than 230 men, including Ramos, arrived in the US legally and were deported in the middle of their immigration affairs. It entered the US with the appointment of the CBP One, a program that the Biden administration used to try to bring order to increase the number of migrants trying to enter the country.
At least 166 of more than 230 men had tattoos, including Blanca, Ramos and Vega. Our investigation has shown that the government greatly relied on the tattoos to tie men to the Venezuelan gang, although Taragua Taragua experts say that tattoos are not reliable indicators of the gang.
A handful of men, including the vega, was given to a voluntary departure by an immigration judge, which means that they agreed to pay the way home to Venezuela. Instead, they were deported to Salvador.
Melissa Sanchez. Perla Trevizo. The mica rosenberg and Gabriel Sandoval about propublica; Ron Rices from Alianz Reber is investigating; And Adrian Gonzalez from the fake news “Kazas” contributed to reporting. Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Almuden Taral Propublica contributed to production.
