ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of energy. Signal as much as obtain our greatest tales as quickly as they’re revealed. This text is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan native newsroom that informs and engages with Texans, and Alianza Rebelde Investiga and Cazadores de Pretend Information.
José Manuel Ramos Bastidas by no means set foot within the U.S. — at the least not as a free man. He left Venezuela in January 2024, hoping to earn sufficient cash to pay for his new child son’s medical wants. Born with a respiratory situation, the household’s “milagrito,” or “little miracle,” had extreme bronchial asthma and repeatedly wanted to be hospitalized. The price of remedy had develop into not possible to handle on the meager wages Ramos made washing automobiles in Venezuela’s collapsed financial system, so he trekked 1000’s of miles by means of a half dozen nations to succeed in the U.S. border.
When Ramos arrived, he didn’t sneak into the nation. He adopted the principles established by the Biden administration for immigrants searching for asylum. He signed up for an appointment by means of a authorities app and, when he was granted one, turned himself in to request safety. An immigration official and a decide decided he didn’t qualify, and Ramos didn’t struggle the choice.
The federal government stored him in detention till he might be deported again to Venezuela.
Within the months that adopted, Donald Trump was elected president for a second time period and started his mass deportation marketing campaign. Amongst his first actions was to fly teams of Venezuelan immigrants whom he had labeled harmful gang members to a U.S. army base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Ramos, 30, panicked and referred to as his spouse to say he was apprehensive that the identical was going to occur to him. On a video name his spouse recorded, he held up a doc he mentioned was proof that immigration authorities had agreed to deport him to Venezuela. However he apprehensive that they might not honor that promise.
“I’ve a household,” he mentioned, staring straight into the digicam. “I’m merely a hard-working Venezuelan. I haven’t dedicated any crimes. I don’t have a prison document in my nation nor anyplace else.”
A month later, a extra upbeat Ramos referred to as once more. He appeared assured that U.S. officers would ship him house. Ramos’ household began making ready for his return. They deliberate to bake him a cake, cook dinner his favourite rooster dish and go to church collectively to thank God for bringing him house safely.
They by no means heard from him once more.
Credit score:
Adriana Loureiro Fernández for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
On March 15, a day after that decision, Ramos and greater than 230 different Venezuelan males have been despatched to the CECOT maximum-security jail in El Salvador, one of the crucial infamous within the Western Hemisphere. With out publicly offering proof, the administration accused every of them of being members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan jail gang it designated a terrorist group.
Within the months for the reason that mass deportation — one of the crucial consequential in latest historical past — the Trump administration has launched virtually no particulars concerning the backgrounds of the folks it deported, calling them “monsters,” “sick criminals” and the “worst of the worst.” A number of information organizations have reported that many of the males didn’t have prison data. ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a crew of Venezuelan journalists from Alianza Rebelde Investiga (Insurgent Alliance Investigates) and Cazadores de Pretend Information (Pretend Information Hunters) went additional, discovering that the federal government’s personal data confirmed that it knew the overwhelming majority of the lads had not been convicted of violent crimes within the U.S. We additionally searched data in South America and located that only some had dedicated violent crimes overseas.
Now, a case-by-case examination of every of the deportees, together with interviews with their attorneys and members of the family, reveals one other jarring actuality: Many of the males weren’t hiding from federal authorities however have been as an alternative shifting by means of the nation’s immigration system. They have been both in the course of their circumstances, which usually ought to have protected them from deportation, or they’d already been ordered deported and will have first been given the choice to be despatched again to a rustic they selected.
Like Ramos, greater than 50 of the lads had used the federal government app referred to as CBP One to make an appointment with border officers to attempt to enter the nation. Others had crossed illegally after which surrendered to frame brokers, typically step one in searching for asylum in immigration court docket.
In line with our evaluation, virtually half of the lads have been deported though their circumstances hadn’t been determined but. Greater than 60 of them had pending asylum claims, together with a number of who have been solely days away from a listening to the place a decide might have dominated on whether or not they can be allowed to remain. Judges or federal officers had issued deportation orders for about 100 of the lads, and a handful had even agreed to pay their very own manner house. Others, like Ramos, had spent their whole time within the U.S. in detention. That they had no alternative to commit crimes within the U.S.
In the meantime, a lot of those that have been allowed into the nation had been showing at their court docket hearings and immigration check-ins. No less than 9 had been granted non permanent protected standing, which supplies folks from nations affected by disasters or different extraordinary situations permission to dwell and work within the U.S.
By and huge, these have been males who had been enjoying by the principles of the nation’s immigration system.
Then, the Trump administration modified the principles.
A day earlier than the administration deported the lads to El Salvador, Trump invoked an obscure 18th-century legislation referred to as the Alien Enemies Act and declared that Tren de Aragua was invading the nation. Administration officers argued that the declaration licensed them to take extraordinary measures to take away anybody it had decided was a member of the gang and to verify they might not threaten the U.S. once more.
Following the March 15 deportations, the Trump administration moved to close down their pending immigration circumstances. Since then, greater than 95 circumstances have been dismissed, terminated or in any other case closed by judges, in response to our evaluation. They disappear from the dockets, some marked as dismissed simply hours earlier than a scheduled listening to.
Michelle Brané, who served as a senior Division of Homeland Safety official within the Biden administration, mentioned it was “very un-American” to deport individuals who adopted the immigration guidelines on the time. “You may’t retroactively say that these folks have been appearing illegally and now punish them for that,” she added.
Legal professionals for the Venezuelan males have filed a number of lawsuits towards the administration, calling the abstract removals from the nation a gross violation of their purchasers’ rights. U.S. District Decide James Boasberg dominated in June that the transfer disadvantaged the lads of their constitutional rights and referred to as their plight Kafkaesque. He wrote that the lads “by no means had any alternative to problem the Authorities’s say-so,” and that they “languish in a international jail on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.”
The federal government has appealed the ruling.
In the meantime, Ramos’ mom, Crisálida del Carmen Bastidas de Ramos, waits anxiously for any information about her oldest baby. “What’s my son pondering? Is my son consuming effectively? Is my son sleeping? Is he chilly?”
“Is he alive?”
Credit score:
Adriana Loureiro Fernández for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
Though the Trump administration routinely describes the lads as criminals and terrorists, it has not supplied proof to help the declare. Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at DHS, defended sending them to the Salvadoran jail. “They might not have prison data within the U.S., past breaking our legal guidelines to enter the nation illegally,” she mentioned in a press release, “however many of those unlawful aliens are removed from harmless.”
For instance, she mentioned one of many TPS holders despatched to El Salvador admitted he had beforehand been convicted of homicide. We obtained Venezuelan court docket data confirming that the person had been convicted of homicide and was sentenced to fifteen years in jail. McLaughlin mentioned his case proved that immigrants had been granted standing within the U.S. underneath Biden with out being completely vetted. Three former DHS officers from the Biden administration mentioned the vetting course of has remained customary throughout administrations, together with throughout the first Trump time period, and that many governments don’t share prison background histories with U.S. officers.
Trump has moved to strip TPS protections from a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals.
Ramos, McLaughlin mentioned, was a terrorist who was flagged as a Tren de Aragua member in a legislation enforcement database at his CBP One appointment. His household denies he has something to do with the gang. His attorneys mentioned in court docket data that U.S. authorities wrongly recognized him as a gang member primarily based on his tattoos and an “unsubstantiated” report from Panamanian officers. A spokesperson for the Panamanian safety ministry mentioned he couldn’t find any paperwork about Ramos.
No less than 163 males who have been deported had tattoos, we discovered. Regulation enforcement officers within the U.S., Colombia, Chile and Venezuela with experience within the Tren de Aragua informed us that tattoos are usually not an indicator of gang membership.
Credit score:
Courtesy of the Prepare dinner County public defender’s workplace in Chicago
Days earlier than Albert Jesús Rodríguez Parra was whisked away, he appeared in immigration court docket and tried to persuade a decide that his tattoos didn’t imply he was a part of the gang.
He had come to the U.S. with a brother in 2023, utilized for asylum and settled in Chicago. He informed his mom that it was tough to search out work, however that he’d gotten an electrical razor, realized to chop hair and supplied trims on the road. In January 2024, he was arrested at a Walmart within the Chicago suburbs for shoplifting about $1,000 price of meals, laundry detergent, shampoo and different objects. He pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor, served a two-day jail sentence and tried to maneuver on.
Rodríguez Parra, 28, obtained a job working in concessions at Wrigley Area, moved in together with his girlfriend and despatched cash house to his mom to purchase a fridge and a range. Then, in November, Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers picked him up at his house. McLaughlin mentioned he was within the nation illegally and was a Tren de Aragua member. Rodríguez Parra continued his asylum case from immigration detention in Indiana.
He informed his household he believed he can be launched quickly. However in early March, he was transferred to a jail in Missouri, then to at least one in Central Texas, then one other in Laredo, in South Texas, every transfer bringing him nearer to the border. Uncertainty started creeping into his calls house.
Regardless of the transfers, Rodríguez Parra’s lawyer, Cruz Rodriguez, who works for a small immigration unit on the Prepare dinner County public defender’s workplace in Chicago, mentioned he was assured within the deserves of the asylum case. He felt optimistic when he logged into his shopper’s digital bond listening to earlier than Decide Eva Saltzman on March 10.
On the listening to, a authorities lawyer requested Rodríguez Parra a few TikTok video he’d made from himself dancing to a well-liked audio clip of somebody shouting, “Te va agarrar el Tren de Aragua,” which suggests, “The Tren de Aragua goes to get you.” Near 60,000 customers on TikTok have shared the clip.
Rodríguez Parra scoffed on the notion that an actual gang member would make such a video. “It will be like they have been outing themselves,” he mentioned in Spanish. The audio clip has been utilized by Venezuelans to ridicule the widespread suggestion that everybody from the nation is a gangster.
The federal government lawyer additionally requested Rodríguez Parra concerning the tattoos that coated his neck, arms and chest — a rose, a wolf, carnival masks and an angel holding a gun. “In my nation, it’s very regular to have tattoos,” he responded. “Every one represents a narrative about my life.”
He was additionally questioned a few suspected Tren de Aragua gang member who had crossed the border similtaneously him. Rodríguez Parra mentioned he didn’t know the person.
On the finish of the listening to, he pleaded with the decide to free him on bond. “I’m a superb particular person,” he informed her. “If I used to be in a gang, I wouldn’t have utilized for asylum. I got here fleeing my nation.”
Saltzman denied Rodríguez Parra’s request, citing his shoplifting conviction. However she supplied him a sliver of hope, reminding him that his last listening to was simply 10 days away. If she granted him asylum, he’d be launched and will proceed his life within the U.S.
“You’re not dealing with a very prolonged detention with out a bond,” she informed him.
5 days later, he was gone. At what was presupposed to be his last asylum listening to on March 20, Rodríguez Parra’s lawyer sounded despondent. He had barely slept. He didn’t know the place the authorities had taken his shopper, however he’d seen a video posted on-line of shackled males being frog-marched into CECOT. The lawyer had visited El Salvador and was conscious of that nation’s status for mistreating prisoners. He feared his shopper would face an identical destiny.
He felt powerless. On the listening to, he turned to the federal government lawyer on the decision. “For his household’s sake,” he informed her, “would you occur to know what nation he was despatched to?”
The federal government’s lawyer had little to say.
“I’m working underneath the identical data as you,” she responded. “I’ve no additional data to supply.”
Design and improvement by Anna Donlan and Allen Tan of ProPublica. Agnel Philip of ProPublica contributed knowledge reporting. Gabriel Sandoval of ProPublica contributed analysis. Adriana Núnez and Carlos Centeno contributed reporting.
