17 members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and members of the MS-13 gang, who had been deported to El Salvador by the US in San Salvador, El Salvador on March 31, 2025. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele confirmed they are going to be despatched to the nation’s notorious mega-prison at CECOP facility jail. San Salvador forces took heavy safety measures.
El Salvador Press Presidency Workplace/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures
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El Salvador Press Presidency Workplace/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures
Immigrant-rights advocates say the U.S. authorities is utilizing a guidelines of “unreliable indicators” to resolve whether or not Venezuelan males are members of the gang Tren de Aragua and topic to removing underneath the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely-used wartime legislation.
The guidelines was revealed Friday in court filings in a case introduced by the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenges the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to remove 137 Venezuelan suspected gang members to a most safety jail in El Salvador.
The ACLU, in a request for a preliminary injunction, cited a number of examples of Venezuelan males despatched to El Salvador, who had been accused of being gang members due to their tattoos. They embrace knowledgeable soccer participant with a tattoo of a soccer ball with a crown, just like the Actual Madrid Soccer Membership emblem.
Tren de Aragua is a gang lately designated by the Trump administration as a overseas terrorist group.
Nonetheless, many relations of the accused, in addition to their attorneys, deny their family members have any affiliation with the gang.
“The federal government’s guidelines means that tattoos and different unreliable indicators are enjoying an unlimited position in Venezuelan males ending up in a brutal Salvadoran jail, maybe for the remainder of their lives,” Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Venture, instructed NPR Monday. “People should have a proper to contest their designation as gang members, even when this wartime authority can be utilized throughout peacetime.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White Home press secretary, told reporters Monday that “there’s a litany of standards that (DHS) use to make sure that these people qualify as overseas terrorists and to make sure that they qualify for deportation.”
What courtroom filings revealed
One of many paperwork contained in Friday’s submitting titled Alien Enemies Act: Alien Enemy Validation Information, offers a guidelines of 20 observations divided into six classes. The classes embrace judicial outcomes, legal conduct and knowledge and symbolism.
The guidelines assigns level totals to totally different classes for every immigrant, together with “topic has tattoos denoting membership/loyalty to TDA” and topic “…shows insignia, logos, notations, drawings, or costume identified to point allegiance to TDA.”
Every statement has an assigned worth starting from two factors, as much as 10 factors. In keeping with the doc, migrants who’ve a complete rating of eight factors or greater “are validated as members of TDA,” and will likely be issued a “Discover and Warrant of Apprehension and Removing Below the Alien Enemies Act.”
“Aliens scoring 6 or 7 factors could also be validated as members of TDA; you need to seek the advice of with a supervisor and (Workplace of the Principal Authorized Advisor), reviewing the totality of the details, earlier than making that dedication,” the guidelines directions state.
Homeland Security Investigations, and native legislation enforcement companies such because the Texas Department of Public Safety, have mentioned Tren de Aragua members have tattoos displaying a wide range of photos, together with AK-47s, trains, clocks, crowns, stars, and the Jumpman emblem, used to advertise the Air Jordan basketball sneakers.
However Ronna Rísquez, a Venezuelan investigative journalist who has written extensively about Tren de Aragua, says tattoos are an unreliable and extremely subjective technique to determine members of the gang.
“Tattoos aren’t an identifier for Tren De Aragua,” Rísquez instructed NPR. “Possibly there is a Tren de Aragua member who has that tattoo, however that is not sufficient to determine them as Tren de Aragua.”
She mentioned extra investigation is required earlier than accusing somebody of being a part of the gang.
“These are tattoos which have turn out to be fashionable amongst younger Venezuelans and Latin Individuals,” Rísquez mentioned.
One fashionable tattoo is the phrase ‘Actual hasta la muerte,’ or ‘Actual till I die.’ In keeping with federal and native legislation enforcement, that phrase is an emblem utilized by Tren de Aragua. However it was coined by Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Anuel AA.
“Many younger folks have gotten that tattoo displaying how massive a fanatic they’re of the singer,” Rísquez mentioned.
27-year-old Josue Basto Lizcano is believed to be one of many greater than 230 Venezuelan males despatched to a most safety jail in El Salvador after being accused of being Tren de Aragua.
By way of the Basto household
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By way of the Basto household
Households allege tattoos landed family members in El Salvador
Earlier this month, the Trump administration despatched greater than 230 Venezuelan males to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, in El Salvador underneath the Alien Enemies Act — 137 of them underneath the Alien Enemies Act, and 101 underneath common deportation procedures.
However the administration has supplied contradictory info: though high-ranking officers proceed to say that the entire 238 Venezuelan males had been members of Tren de Aragua, in courtroom paperwork, one ICE official conceded that a number of the males did not have legal information. The dearth of “particular info,” the official declared, “highlights the danger they pose.”
27-year-old Josue Basto Lizcano is among the males the U.S. despatched to El Salvador. He tried to enter the U.S. on September 7, 2024 by way of a CBP app that Trump shuttered in January.
However Basto was detained that day, and was by no means launched, mentioned his sister Yesika Basto.
She instructed NPR that after the November presidential election, his brother “instructed us immigration brokers had been accusing him of being Tren de Aragua.”
“He is not a part of any gang,” Yesika Basto mentioned, including that her brother does not have a legal document in Venezuela or Colombia, the 2 locations he is lived. “He cannot have any legal document within the U.S. as a result of he is by no means been free.”
Her brother has a number of tattoos, together with a clock that marks the time of his son’s delivery, a rose, and stars.
She described her brother as somebody who loves journey. In Colombia he labored for a tourism firm as a driver. He additionally helped within the household’s cabinetmaking enterprise.
“My brother was discriminated towards due to his tattoos,” Yesika Basto mentioned. “I do know that many individuals have dedicated crimes and made errors, however we aren’t all the identical.”
