Juan performs a video of his son Carlos using a motorbike, which Carlos bought the day earlier than being taken into custody, at his house in Cedar Park, Texas, on Jan. 29, 2025.
Tamir Kalifa/for NPR
conceal caption
toggle caption
Tamir Kalifa/for NPR
CEDAR PARK, Texas — For the previous couple of weeks, Juan Terán had been full of disappointment.
His son, 18-year-old Carlos Daniel Terán from Venezuela, had been in immigration detention facilities in Texas after being arrested on Jan. 26, and accused by the U.S. government of being part of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang not too long ago designated by the U.S. as a overseas terrorist group.
NPR, which first reported about Carlos’ arrest last month, couldn’t discover any legal data for him in Texas, or wherever else throughout the U.S.
On March 15, Juan Terán final spoke to his son. It was by way of textual content message.
“Bendición papá, we’re being taken out,” the son wrote. “With God’s assist, we’re leaving in the present day.”
Juan replied, “God bless you, son.”
Since then, Juan Terán has not heard from Carlos.
On Wednesday, Juan Terán obtained a photograph that he believes confirms what he had feared — his son was one of many 261 immigrants despatched to a most safety jail in El Salvador, regardless of a federal judge ordering the flights carrying the men to turn around.
Carlos Daniel’s case is caught up in a broader brewing battle between govt and judicial authority. Decide James Boasberg has repeatedly pressed the Justice Division for particulars on these flights to El Salvador over issues the administration could have defied his orders.
“He appears to be like rather a lot like my son,” Juan Terán stated of the photograph. “He has large ears — he appears to be like like my son.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not reply to NPR’s questions on Carlos Daniel’s case and his location.
Juan Terán stated his son thought he was going to be deported again to his native Venezuela. As a substitute, it looks like he ended up on the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT — a infamous El Salvador jail, which human rights teams have raised issues about.
He worries about his son’s well-being.
“He is a baby … I do know that my son has a weak thoughts, and I do know he feels scared,” Juan Terán stated, choking up.
NPR talked to the households of 4 males believed to be in El Salvador. None of them had a severe legal file within the U.S. Just one had been charged with unlawful entry. Three of the 4 are believed to have signed their voluntary departure orders, a transfer that may in principle permit them to return to the U.S. at a later time if accepted.
A few of the households have been in a position to both determine their family members by way of official images or movies launched by El Salvador’s authorities. However the U.S. authorities has not supplied an inventory of names, proof of crimes or affiliation to Tren de Aragua.
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about this this week. She stated the White Home was “not going to disclose operational particulars a couple of counterterrorism operation.”
Leavitt stated that immigration enforcement brokers who investigated the migrants despatched to El Salvador “have nice proof and indication, they’ve the best diploma of professionalism and so they had been 100% assured within the people that had been despatched house on these flights.”
Lack of transparency leaves individuals scrambling
However the White Home has not supplied any particulars or proof to maintain their claims.
A supply within the State Division says even throughout the division the administration shouldn’t be sharing any proof that helps the claims that these males are members of Tren de Aragua. The supply fears the boys won’t ever go to trial and will die in jail, given the cruel situations and El Salvador’s observe file. The supply requested anonymity fearing retribution and since they aren’t licensed to talk publicly.
On this photograph supplied by El Salvador’s presidential press workplace, a jail guard transfers deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Heart in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025.
El Salvador presidential press workplace/by way of AP
conceal caption
toggle caption
El Salvador presidential press workplace/by way of AP
However in an interview on Wednesday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated he has “confidence that El Salvador runs a superb jail system. That is why we engaged them on this course of.”
In a courtroom submitting earlier this week associated to a problem to the flights to El Salvador, Justice Division legal professionals supplied a sworn declaration from an ICE official who stated that most of the individuals on these flights the administration claimed had been members of Tren de Aragua, did not have legal data within the U.S. “The shortage of particular details about every particular person really highlights the chance they pose,” the declaration acknowledged.
Mercedes Yamarte stated she acknowledged her 24-year-old son Mervin José Yamarte Fernández in a video from the federal government of El Salvador.
“My largest shock is once I noticed the video and I noticed my son’s face,” she stated in Spanish. “I am unable to specific all of the struggling I noticed in my son’s eyes.”
She stated her son had been residing in Dallas, and was working there. He liked to play soccer, and study new expertise.
Yamarte says her son does not have a legal file. He signed deportation papers pondering he was going to Venezuela.
“They do not need to break the lifetime of a younger man who has by no means been in jail, has by no means been a legal,” Yamarte stated. “He is at all times labored arduous — I taught him that.”
Ivette Borges additionally believes her cousin was despatched to El Salvador.
Neri Jose Alvarado Borges, 25, was residing in Lewisville, Texas earlier than he ended up at an immigration detention middle in Laredo.
The final time his household heard from him was final Friday. He informed his mother he was going to be deported to Venezuela.
Borges says Alvarado’s mom is in shock. Alvarado does not have a legal file and they’re nervous about him.
They haven’t been in a position to positively determine him since his tattoos are usually not seen within the images revealed by the El Salvador authorities.
“At this time is the primary time I’ve the energy to speak about him,” Borges says. “It is maddening to not know something about him.”
For Mirelys Casique Lopez, the considered seeing his son on the El Salvador jail is just too painful.
Francisco Javier García Casique.
Casique Household
conceal caption
toggle caption
Casique Household
She says Francisco Javier Garcia, 24, was working as a barber in Longview, Texas.
He had signed his deportation order final 12 months however, as a result of Venezuela was not accepting deportees, he was allowed to remain within the nation.
However early final month, immigration brokers confirmed up in his neighborhood and he was arrested.
“Trump’s authorities stated they had been going after the worst criminals, so we imagined he was going after somebody who had killed individuals within the U.S.,” Casique stated, including that her son does not have a legal file within the U.S. or Venezuela. She supplied NPR with an official doc from Venezuela stating García doesn’t have a legal file.
However the household was considerably relieved — they actually thought Garcia was going to be despatched to Venezuela. However a month later, on Saturday, he referred to as his mother to inform her he was about to depart the detention facility in Laredo, Texas.
“I’ll see the planes, and I do know you may be on one in every of them,” Cacique informed her son. “Do not you are worried, my son — God bless you.”
However these airplanes by no means landed in Venezuela. She later discovered flights had landed in El Salvador. Her different youngsters have recognized their brother in social media movies.
“He adopted the principles… I really feel we had been very naive,” she stated. “We trusted that the U.S. was going to respect his rights — they do not respect human rights.”
NPR’s Michele Kelemen contributed to this story.
