50+ Venezuelans Imprisoned in El Salvador Came to the US Legally

They never violated any immigration laws but due process was denied anyway

Shortly after the US government illegally and unconstitutionally transported about 240 Venezuelans to be imprisoned in El Salvador’s horrific “terrorism” prison on March 15, CBS News published their names. A subsequent CBS News investigation found that 75 percent of the men on that list had no criminal record in the United States or abroad. Less attention has been paid to the fact that dozens of these men never violated immigration laws either.

Why This Review Was Needed

The US government not only denied these men due process: it has also generally failed to provide their families, their attorneys, or the public any information about what it alleges these men did to deserve incarceration in El Salvador. In fact, it has never even published a comprehensive list of individuals that it has sent to El Salvador, and it has refused to verify the CBS News list. Journalists have already discovered that the list obtained by CBS News was incomplete.

Moreover, in most cases, the men never knew the “evidence” against them, nor that they were being removed to El Salvador. Finally, the US and Salvadoran governments won’t allow the men to talk to anyone, so there is no way to interview them directly.

Given the total lack of transparency by the federal government, we have compiled what the families of the men themselves are reporting about their entries and what likely triggered their incarceration in El Salvador. Their stories are often corroborated by government entry documents, witness testimony, and the administration’s own statements about them.

How the Imprisoned Venezuelans Came to America

Sadly, no information regarding one in three of the men could be found online. Maybe no one in their families knows they are missing, or maybe they are too afraid to speak up. For 48 percent of the 174 about whom we have some information, we have no information about their method of crossing into the United States. For many, the only information is Facebook or Instagram posts from their mothers pleading for information about their children. About 100 relatives also signed a letter to Salvadoran President Nayeb Bukele, but it contains no case-specific information.

The government calls them all “illegal aliens.” But of the 90 cases where the method of crossing is known, 50 men report that they came legally to the United States—with advanced US government permission—at an official border crossing point. A Reuters survey of 50 men also placed the proportion of those who entered legally at about half. This isn’t surprising because about half of all the Venezuelans who have immigrated over the past 2 years came legally as well—either as refugees, parolees, or visa holders. The proportion isn’t what matters the most: the astounding absolute numbers are. Dozens of legal immigrants were stripped of their status and imprisoned in El Salvador.

These legal immigrants include a temporary visa holder and four men who were authorized to travel through the US refugee program. The government vetted these refugees abroad and concluded that they would face persecution, letting them resettle in the United States. The other 45 legal immigrants scheduled appointments using the CBP One app through which they were permitted to seek entry. Of those with appointments, 24 were paroled into the United States where they could live and work legally for up to two years, while the other 21 were detained at the port of entry.

These people came to the United States with advanced US government permission, were vetted and screened before arrival, violated no US immigration law, and the US government turned around and disappeared them without due process to a foreign prison. It is paying the Salvadoran government to continue to keep them incarcerated.

Who Is the US Government Paying to be Imprisoned?

The men were workers—construction laborers, pipe installers, cooks, delivery drivers, a soccer coach, a makeup artist, a mechanic, a veterinarian, a musician, and an entrepreneur. Most of those who were released quickly found jobs in the United States.

A majority of the men are fathers. Altogether, the men were trying to support 44 children. The US government did not inform their families, lawyers, or anyone else of their impending imprisonment at US government expense in a Salvadoran prison known for torture and other abuses that would be illegal inside the United States. Agents simply disappeared them without charge or trial or even acknowledgement, which is rightly considered a crime against humanity.

CBS News obtained a list of the flight manifests from March 15, but there was never any official recognition of that list, so no one could confirm the whereabouts of their loved ones. It turned out that the CBS list was incomplete, and two of these legal immigrants vanished without a trace. It took media investigations to reveal their whereabouts in the Salvadoran prison. In one case, ICE lied to the family before admitting that their relative was sent to the prison.

What’s the Evidence Against Them?

The US government asserts that they are “criminal terrorists” who are “confirmed” members of criminal organization known as Tren de Aragua (TdA). Investigations by the New York Times, Bloomberg, and CBS News have all found few of the imprisoned men have any criminal record. All these legal immigrants denied gang membership, and only two appear to have had a US criminal conviction of any kind, both for minor drug offenses. About two dozen of the legal immigrants were detained immediately at the port of entry where they were authorized to seek entry, so there is no possibility that they demonstrated any gang ties or committed any crimes inside the United States.

Most—at least 42—were labeled as gang members primarily based on their tattoos, which Venezuelan gangs do not use to identify members and are not reliable indicators of gang membership. According to court documents, DHS created a checklist to determine membership that heavily weights “dressing” like a gang member, using “gang signs,” and most critically, tattoos. No criminal conviction, arrest, or even witness testimony is required.

DHS’s images of “TdA tattoos” include the Jordan logo, an AK 47, a train, a crown, “hijos,” “HJ,” a star, a clock, and a gas mask, but as American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin Melnick has shown, all of these supposed TdA tattoos were not taken from Venezuelan gang members, but rather stolen by DHS from social media accounts that have nothing to do with TdA or Venezuela. For instance, DHS obtained its TdA “Jordan” from a Michael Jordan fan account in the United States. It pulled its AK-47 tattoo from a Turkish tattoo artist.

Because these men were denied due process, the public had no opportunity to obtain a real accounting of any evidence against them. DHS says, “We aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one.” Of course, they do share details every time that those details support their negative portrayal of this group.

Therefore, DHS’s failure to give any information on anyone else corroborates these men’s assertions that they are innocent. In one case, DHS has even tried to say that one imprisoned man “entered illegally . . . via CBP One,” which is incoherent and only further highlights how DHS views anyone it wants to expel as “illegal” regardless of how they actually entered.

Since DHS refuses to be transparent, we must often rely on media reporting and family accounts. However, these accounts often include official government documents, showing no criminal records and legal entries.

Among the supposedly damning tattoos from the legal immigrants were several roses, multiple clocks, crowns over the names of family members, playing cards used to cover up an ugly scar from a childhood accident, a song lyric from a reggaeton artist from Puerto Rico, the Real Madrid logo on a professional soccer player, and a reference to the videogame Call of Duty on a teenager.

Here are gay makeup artist Andry Hernandez Romero’s tattoos. He entered legally:

As Cato’s Ilya Somin points out, all people are entitled to due process under the US Constitution before the US government imprisons them. This is true whether they entered legally or illegally. But the fact that the US government now has the reputation of sending legal immigrants to foreign prisons without due process may deter many people from wanting to come legally and build their lives in a country where the rule of law is so absent.

Read the reports for each individual below:

Profiles of 50 Legal Immigrants Imprisoned in El Salvador

The tables below summarize the information for each person.