Venezuelan mom says son despatched to El Salvador mega-prison from US

In a poor neighbourhood of the Venezuelan metropolis of Maracay, the mom of 24-year-old Francisco José García Casique was ready for him on Saturday.

It had been 18 months since he had migrated to the US to start a brand new life however he had informed her that he was now being deported again to Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, for being within the US illegally. That they had spoken that morning, simply earlier than he was on account of depart.

“I believed it was a great signal that he was being deported [to Caracas],” Myrelis Casique López recalled. She had missed her son deeply since he left house.

However he by no means arrived. And whereas watching a tv information report on Sunday, Ms Casique was shocked to see her son, not within the US or Venezuela however 1,430 miles (2,300km) away in El Salvador.

The footage confirmed 238 Venezuelans despatched by US authorities to the Terrorism Confinement Centre, or Cecot, a infamous mega-jail. She noticed males with shaved heads and shackles on their arms and ft, being forcefully escorted by heavily-armed safety forces.

Ms Casique informed the BBC she was sure her son was among the many detainees.

“It is him. It is him,” she stated, gesturing at an image through which he’s seated, along with his head bowed, on a jail flooring, a tattoo seen on his arm. “I recognise his options.”

Whereas an official checklist of names is but to be launched, the household is satisfied that Mr García was among the many Venezuelans deported to the Salvadoran supermax jail, whilst a US decide blocked the removals. In addition they keep he’s harmless.

The Trump administration says the entire deportees are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which has discovered itself within the White Home’s crosshairs. The highly effective multi-national crime group, which Trump not too long ago declared a overseas terrorist organisation, has been accused of intercourse trafficking, drug smuggling and murders each at house and in main US cities.

US immigration officers have stated the detainees have been “rigorously vetted” and verified as gang members earlier than being flown to El Salvador. They stated they used proof collected throughout surveillance, police encounters or testimonies from victims to vet them.

“Our job is to ship the terrorists out earlier than anybody else will get raped or murdered,” Deputy White Home Chief of Workers Stephen Miller stated on Wednesday.

Lots of the deportees do not need US prison data, nevertheless, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official acknowledged in court docket paperwork.

Those that do have prison data embody migrants with arrests on expenses starting from homicide, fentanyl trafficking and kidnapping to house invasion and working a gang-run brothel, in keeping with the Trump administration.

In Mr García’s case, his mom disputes that her son was concerned in prison exercise. He left Venezuela in 2019, first to Peru, searching for new alternatives as overlapping financial, political and social crises engulfed the nation, she stated. He crossed illegally into the US in September 2023.

His mom has not seen him in particular person in six years.

“He would not belong to any prison gang, both within the US or in Venezuela… he is not a prison,” Ms Casique stated. “What he is been is a barber.”

“Sadly, he has tattoos,” she added, satisfied that the roses and names of relations that adorn his physique led to his detention and deportation. That’s how she, and different members, recognised him from photos launched of the deportees in El Salvador.

A number of different households have stated they imagine that deportees have been mistakenly recognized as Tren de Aragua gang members due to their tattoos.

“It is him,” Ms Casique stated tearfully in Maracay, referencing the picture from the jail. “I want it wasn’t him… he did not should be transferred there.”

The mom of Mervin Yamarte, 29, additionally recognized her son within the video.

“I threw myself on the ground, saying that God could not do that to my son,” she informed the BBC from her house within the Los Pescadores neighbourhood of Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Like Ms Casique, she denies her son was concerned with the gang. He had left his hometown and travelled to the US by means of the Darién Hole, crossing illegally in 2023 with three of his mates: Edwar Herrera, 23; Andy Javier Perozo, 30; and Ringo Rincón, 39.

The BBC spoke with their households and mates, who stated they’d noticed the 4 males within the footage and so they have been now all being held within the El Salvador jail.

Mr Yamarte’s mom stated her son had labored in a tortilla manufacturing unit, typically working 12-hour shifts. On Sundays, he performed soccer along with his mates.

“He is a great, noble younger man. There is a mistake,” she stated.

President Trump invoked a centuries-old legislation, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, to deport the lads with out due course of within the US, saying they have been Tren de Aragua gang members.

Regardless of the US authorities’s assurances that the deportees have been rigorously vetted, the transfer has had a chilling impact on many Venezuelans and Venezuelan-People within the US, who worry that Trump’s use of the legislation may result in extra Venezuelans being accused and swiftly deported with none expenses or convictions.

“In fact we’re afraid. We’re terrified,” stated Adelys Ferro, the executive-director of the Venezuelan-American Caucus, an advocacy group. “We wish each single member of TdA to pay for his or her crimes. However we do not know what the standards is.”

“They [Venezeulans] live in unsure instances,” she stated. “They do not know what selections to make – even folks with paperwork and have been right here for years.”

Ms Ferro’s considerations have been echoed by Brian de la Vega, a outstanding Florida-based, Venezuela-born immigration lawyer and army veteran.

A lot of his purchasers are within the Miami space, together with Doral – a suburb typically given the moniker “Doralzuela” for its massive Venezuelan inhabitants.

“The vast majority of Venezuelans within the US are attempting to do the fitting factor. They worry going again to their house nation,” Mr de la Vega informed the BBC. “The primary concern, for me, is how they’re figuring out these members. The usual could be very low.”

Many Venezuelan expatriates within the US – notably South Florida – have been broadly supportive of Trump, who has taken a tricky stance on the left-wing authorities of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro which a lot of them fled.

However in February, the Trump administration terminated Non permanent Protected Standing – TPS – for Venezuelans, which had shielded many from deportation. The programme formally ends on 7 April and will influence practically 350,000 Venezuelan nationals residing within the US.

“Trump’s speeches have all the time been robust in regards to the Venezuelan regime, particularly throughout the marketing campaign,” Mr de la Vega stated. “I do not assume folks anticipated all this.”

Daniel Campo, a Venezuelan-born naturalised US citizen in Pennsylvania – and ardent Trump supporter – informed the BBC that whereas he stays steadfast in his assist of the president, he has some considerations in regards to the deportations to El Salvador and the tip of TPS.

“I definitely hope that when they’re doing raids to deport Tren de Aragua, particularly to the jail in El Salvador, they’re being additional cautious,” he stated.

Amongst these caught without warning by the tip of TPS and the latest deportations is a 25-year-old Venezuelan man who requested to be recognized solely as Yilber, who arrived within the US in 2022 after an extended, harmful journey by means of Central America and Mexico.

He is now within the US – however not sure about what comes subsequent.

“I left Venezuela due to the repression, and the insecurity. My neighbourhood in Caracas had gangs,” he stated. “Now I do not know what is going on to occur right here.”

Further reporting by Bernd Debusmann Jr in Washington