The Trump administration knew that the overwhelming majority of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it despatched to a maximum-security jail in El Salvador in mid-March had not been convicted of crimes in the US earlier than it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, in line with U.S. Division of Homeland Safety knowledge that has not been beforehand reported.
President Donald Trump and his aides have branded the Venezuelans as “rapists,” “savages,” “monsters” and “the worst of the worst.” When a number of information organizations disputed those assertions with reporting that showed most of the deportees did not have criminal records, the administration doubled down. It mentioned that its evaluation of the deportees was based mostly on an intensive vetting course of that included crimes dedicated each inside and outdoors the US. However the authorities’s personal knowledge, which was obtained by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a workforce of journalists from Venezuela, confirmed that officers knew that solely 32 of the deportees had been convicted of U.S. crimes and that almost all had been nonviolent offenses, resembling retail theft or site visitors violations.
The info signifies that the federal government knew that solely six of the immigrants had been convicted of violent crimes: 4 for assault, one for kidnapping and one for a weapons offense. And it reveals that officers had been conscious that greater than half, or 130, of the deportees weren’t labeled as having any legal convictions or pending costs; they had been labeled as solely having violated immigration legal guidelines.
As for international offenses, our personal overview of court docket and police data from round the US and in Latin American nations the place the deportees had lived discovered proof of arrests or convictions for 20 of the 238 males. Of these, 11 concerned violent crimes resembling armed theft, assault or homicide, together with one man who the Chilean authorities had requested the U.S. to extradite to face kidnapping and drug costs there. One other 4 had been accused of unlawful gun possession.
We carried out a case-by-case overview of all of the Venezuelan deportees. It’s potential there are crimes and different data within the deportees’ backgrounds that didn’t present up in our reporting or the interior authorities knowledge, which incorporates solely minimal particulars for 9 of the boys. There’s no single publicly out there database for all crimes dedicated within the U.S., a lot much less overseas. However the whole lot we did discover in public data contradicted the Trump administration’s assertions as nicely.
ProPublica and the Tribune, together with Venezuelan media retailers Cazadores de Faux Information (Faux Information Hunters) and Alianza Rebelde Investiga (Insurgent Alliance Investigates), additionally obtained lists of alleged gang members which are saved by Venezuelan legislation enforcement officers and the worldwide legislation enforcement company Interpol. These lists embrace some 1,400 names. Not one of the names of the 238 Venezuelan deportees matched these on the lists.
The hasty removing of the Venezuelans and their incarceration in a 3rd nation has made this one of the crucial consequential deportations in current historical past. The court docket battles over whether or not Trump has the authority to expel immigrants with out judicial overview have the potential to upend how this nation handles all immigrants dwelling within the U.S., whether or not legally or illegally. Officers have recommended publicly that, to realize the president’s targets of deporting tens of millions of immigrants, the administration was contemplating suspending habeas corpus, the longstanding constitutional proper permitting individuals to problem their detention.
Hours earlier than the immigrants had been loaded onto airplanes in Texas for deportation, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, declaring that the Tren de Aragua jail gang had invaded the US, aided by the Venezuelan authorities. It branded the gang a international terrorist group and mentioned that declaration gave the president the authority to expel its members and ship them indefinitely to a international jail, the place they’ve remained for greater than two months with no skill to speak with their households or attorneys.
Lee Gelernt, the lead lawyer within the American Civil Liberties Union’s authorized battle in opposition to the deportations, mentioned the removals amounted to a “blatant violation of essentially the most basic due course of ideas.” He mentioned that below the legislation, an immigrant who has dedicated against the law could be prosecuted and eliminated, however “it doesn’t imply they are often subjected to a probably lifetime sentence in a international gulag.”
White Home spokesperson Abigail Jackson mentioned in response to our findings that “ProPublica needs to be embarrassed that they’re doing the bidding of legal unlawful aliens who’re a menace,” including that “the American individuals strongly assist” the president’s immigration agenda.
When requested concerning the variations between the administration’s public statements concerning the deportees and the way in which they’re labeled in authorities knowledge, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin largely repeated previous public statements. She insisted, with out offering proof, that the deportees had been harmful, saying, “These people categorized as ‘non-criminals’ are literally terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and extra — they only don’t have a rap sheet within the U.S.”
As for the administration’s allegations that Tren de Aragua has tried an invasion, an evaluation by U.S. intelligence officers concluded that the gang was not appearing on the route of the Venezuelan authorities of Nicolás Maduro and that studies suggesting in any other case had been “not credible.” Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of nationwide intelligence, fired the report’s authors after it grew to become public. Her workplace, in line with information studies, mentioned Gabbard was making an attempt to “finish the weaponization and politicization” of the intelligence group.
Our investigation targeted on the 238 Venezuelan males who had been deported on March 15 to CECOT, the jail in El Salvador, and whose names had been on an inventory first printed by CBS News. The federal government has additionally despatched a number of dozen different immigrants there, together with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who the federal government admitted was despatched there in error. Courts have dominated that the administration ought to facilitate his return to the U.S.
We interviewed about 100 of the deportees’ kin and their attorneys. A lot of them had heard from their family members on the morning of March 15, when the boys believed they had been being despatched again to Venezuela. They had been blissful as a result of they might be again residence with their households, who had been keen to arrange their favourite meals and plan events. A few of the kin shared video messages with us and on social media that had been recorded inside U.S. detention services. In these movies, the detainees mentioned they had been afraid that they could be despatched to Guantanamo, a U.S. facility on Cuban soil the place Washington has held and tortured detainees, together with a quantity that it suspected of plotting the 9/11 terrorist assaults. The Trump administration had sent planes carrying Venezuelan immigrants there earlier this 12 months.
That they had no concept they had been being despatched to El Salvador.
Amongst them was 31-year-old Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, who left Venezuela and his job as a youth soccer coach final July. His sister, Leidys Trejo Solórzano, mentioned he had a tough time supporting himself and his mom and that Venezuela’s crumbling financial system made it laborious for him to discover a higher paying job. Colmenares was detained at an appointment to method the U.S.-Mexico border in October due to his many tattoos, his sister mentioned. These tattoos embrace the names of kin, a clock, an owl and a crown she mentioned was impressed by the Actual Madrid soccer membership’s emblem.
Credit score:
Adriana Loureiro Fernández for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
Colmenares was not flagged as having a legal historical past within the DHS knowledge we obtained. Nor did we discover any U.S. or international convictions or costs in our overview. Trejo mentioned her brother stayed out of hassle and has no legal file in Venezuela both. She described his expulsion as a U.S.-government-sponsored kidnapping.
“It’s been so tough. Even speaking about what occurred is tough for me,” mentioned Trejo, who has scoured the web for movies and pictures of her brother within the Salvadoran jail. “Many nights I can’t sleep as a result of I’m so anxious.”
The inner authorities knowledge reveals that officers had labeled all however a handful of the boys as members of Tren de Aragua however provided little details about how they got here to that conclusion. Court filings and paperwork we obtained present the federal government has relied partly on social media posts, affiliations with identified gang members and tattoos, together with crowns, clocks, weapons, grenades and Michael Jordan’s “Jumpman” emblem. We discovered that no less than 158 of the Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador have tattoos. However legislation enforcement sources within the U.S., Colombia, Chile and Venezuela with experience within the Tren de Aragua informed us that tattoos usually are not an indicator of gang membership.
McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, mentioned the company is assured in its assessments of gang affiliation however wouldn’t present further data to assist them.
John Sandweg, a former appearing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, mentioned, “for political causes, I believe the administration desires to characterize this as a grand effort that’s selling public security of the US.” However “even among the authorities’s personal knowledge demonstrates there’s a hole between the rhetoric and the truth,” he mentioned, referring to the interior knowledge we obtained.
The federal government knowledge reveals 67 males who had been deported had been flagged as having pending costs, although it supplies no particulars about their alleged crimes. We discovered police, court docket and different data for 38 of these deportees. We discovered a number of individuals whose legal historical past differed from what was tagged within the authorities knowledge. In some circumstances that the federal government listed as pending legal costs, the boys had been convicted and in a single case the cost had been dropped earlier than the person was deported.
Our reporting discovered that, just like the legal convictions, nearly all of the pending costs concerned nonviolent crimes, together with retail theft, drug possession and site visitors offenses.
Six of the boys had pending costs for tried homicide, assault, armed theft, gun possession or home battery. Immigrant advocates have mentioned eradicating individuals to a jail in El Salvador earlier than the circumstances in opposition to them had been resolved implies that Trump, asserting his government authority, short-circuited the legal justice system.
Take the case of Wilker Miguel Gutiérrez Sierra, 23, who was arrested in February 2024 in Chicago on costs of tried homicide, theft and aggravated battery after he and three different Venezuelan males allegedly assaulted a stranger on a prepare and stole his cellphone and $400. He pleaded not responsible. Gutiérrez was on digital monitoring as he awaited trial when he was arrested by ICE brokers who’d pulled as much as him on the road in 5 black vehicles, court docket data present. Three days later he was shipped to El Salvador.
However the majority of males labeled as having pending circumstances had been dealing with much less critical costs, in line with the data we discovered. Maikol Gabriel López Lizano, 23, was arrested in Chicago in August 2023 on misdemeanor costs for using his bike on the sidewalk whereas ingesting a can of Budweiser. His companion, Cherry Flores, described his deportation as a gross injustice. “They shouldn’t have despatched him there,” she mentioned. “Why did they must take him over a beer?”
Jeff Ernsthausen of ProPublica contributed knowledge evaluation. Adriana Núñez and Carlos Centeno contributed reporting.
