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This text is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan native newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Join The Temporary Weekly to rise up to hurry on their important protection of Texas points. It’s additionally co-published with Alianza Rebelde Investiga (Insurgent Alliance Investigates), a coalition of Venezuelan on-line media shops, and Cazadores de Faux Information (Faux Information Hunters), a Venezuelan investigative on-line information group.
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 USA earlier than it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, in keeping 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 these assertions with reporting that confirmed lots of the deportees didn’t have legal data, the administration doubled down. It mentioned that its evaluation of the deportees was primarily based on an intensive vetting course of that included taking a look at crimes dedicated each inside and outdoors the USA. However the authorities’s personal knowledge, which was obtained by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a group 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 have been nonviolent offenses, equivalent to retail theft or visitors violations.
The info signifies that the federal government knew that solely six of the immigrants have been convicted of violent crimes: 4 for assault, one for kidnapping and one for a weapons offense. And it reveals that officers have been conscious that greater than half, or 130, of the deportees weren’t labeled as having any legal convictions or pending fees; they have been labeled as solely having violated immigration legal guidelines.
As for international offenses, our personal evaluate of court docket and police data from round the USA 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 equivalent to 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 fees there. One other 4 had been accused of unlawful gun possession.
We performed a case-by-case evaluate of all of the Venezuelan deportees. It’s doable there are crimes and different info within the deportees’ backgrounds that didn’t present up in our reporting or the inner authorities knowledge, which incorporates solely minimal particulars for 9 of the lads. There’s no single publicly accessible database for all crimes dedicated within the U.S., a lot much less overseas. However every little thing we did discover in public data contradicted the Trump administration’s assertions as nicely.
ProPublica and the Tribune, together with Venezuelan media shops Cazadores de Faux Information (Faux Information Hunters) and Alianza Rebelde Investiga (Insurgent Alliance Investigates), additionally obtained lists of alleged gang members which can be saved by Venezuelan regulation enforcement officers and the worldwide regulation 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 elimination of the Venezuelans and their incarceration in a 3rd nation has made this one of the vital consequential deportations in latest historical past. The court docket battles over whether or not Trump has the authority to expel immigrants with out judicial evaluate 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 objectives 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 have 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 USA, 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 means to speak with their households or legal professionals.
Lee Gelernt, the lead legal professional within the American Civil Liberties Union’s authorized struggle towards the deportations, mentioned the removals amounted to a “blatant violation of essentially the most elementary due course of ideas.” He mentioned that underneath the regulation, an immigrant who has dedicated a criminal offense might be prosecuted and eliminated, however “it doesn’t imply they are often subjected to a doubtlessly lifetime sentence in a international gulag.”
White Home spokesperson Abigail Jackson mentioned in response to our findings that “ProPublica must be embarrassed that they’re doing the bidding of legal unlawful aliens who’re a menace,” including that “the American individuals strongly help” the president’s immigration agenda.
When requested in regards to the variations between the administration’s public statements in regards to the deportees and the way in which they’re labeled in authorities knowledge, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin largely repeated earlier public statements. She insisted, with out offering proof, that the deportees have 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 have 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 keeping with information studies, mentioned Gabbard was making an attempt to “finish the weaponization and politicization” of the intelligence neighborhood.
Our investigation centered on the 238 Venezuelan males who have been deported on March 15 to CECOT, the jail in El Salvador, and whose names have been on an inventory first revealed by CBS Information. 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’ family members and their attorneys. Lots of them had heard from their family members on the morning of March 15, when the lads believed they have been being despatched again to Venezuela. They have been glad as a result of they’d be again dwelling with their households, who have been keen to organize their favourite meals and plan events. Among the family members shared video messages with us and on social media that have been recorded inside U.S. detention services. In these movies, the detainees mentioned they have 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 despatched planes carrying Venezuelan immigrants there earlier this 12 months.
That they had no concept they have 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 arduous for him to discover a higher paying job. Colmenares was detained at an appointment to strategy the U.S.-Mexico border in October due to his many tattoos, his sister mentioned. These tattoos embrace the names of family members, a clock, an owl and a crown she mentioned was impressed by the Actual Madrid soccer membership’s emblem.
First picture: Colmenares’ mom, Marianela Solórzano, and sister at their dwelling in Venezuela. Second picture: Photographs of Colmenares as a toddler in Venezuela.
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 fees in our evaluate. Trejo mentioned her brother stayed out of bother and has no legal document 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 difficult for me,” mentioned Trejo, who has scoured the web for movies and images of her brother within the Salvadoran jail. “Many nights I can’t sleep as a result of I’m so anxious.”
The interior authorities knowledge reveals that officers had labeled all however a handful of the lads as members of Tren de Aragua however provided little details about how they got here to that conclusion. Courtroom filings and paperwork we obtained present the federal government has relied partially 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 at the very least 158 of the Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador have tattoos. However regulation enforcement sources within the U.S., Colombia, Chile and Venezuela with experience within the Tren de Aragua instructed us that tattoos will not be an indicator of gang membership.
McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, mentioned the company is assured in its assessments of gang affiliation however wouldn’t present extra info to help 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 USA.” However “even a few of the authorities’s personal knowledge demonstrates there’s a hole between the rhetoric and the truth,” he mentioned, referring to the inner knowledge we obtained.
The federal government knowledge reveals 67 males who have been deported had been flagged as having pending fees, although it gives 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 fees, the lads 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 fees concerned nonviolent crimes, together with retail theft, drug possession and visitors offenses.
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Six of the lads had pending fees 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 towards them have been resolved implies that Trump, asserting his govt 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 fees of tried homicide, theft and aggravated battery after he and three different Venezuelan males allegedly assaulted a stranger on a practice 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 vans, court docket data present. Three days later he was shipped to El Salvador.
However the majority of males labeled as having pending circumstances have been dealing with much less critical fees, in keeping with the data we discovered. Maikol Gabriel López Lizano, 23, was arrested in Chicago in August 2023 on misdemeanor fees for driving his bike on the sidewalk whereas consuming a can of Budweiser. His accomplice, Cherry Flores, described his deportation as a gross injustice. “They shouldn’t have despatched him there,” she mentioned. “Why did they need to take him over a beer?”
Jeff Ernsthausen of ProPublica contributed knowledge evaluation. Adriana Núñez and Carlos Centeno contributed reporting.
