Pro Soccer Player Sent To El Salvador By Trump Over Tattoo: Lawyer | EUROtoday

The Trump administration expelled an expert soccer participant to El Salvador based mostly on a tattoo that paid homage to the soccer membership Real Madrid, his legal professional mentioned.

The soccer participant fled Venezuela after protesting authoritarian chief Nicolás Maduro — however now he’s considered one of a number of former U.S. migrants who haven’t contacted associates or attorneys in a number of days and are presumably being detained in an notorious Salvadoran jail.

Jerce Reyes Barrios was falsely recognized as a gang member due to his tattoo, his lawyer mentioned — echoing a declare that quite a few legal professionals and households of the expelled migrants have asserted in current days. The tattoo was merely an homage to the soccer membership Real Madrid, the lawyer mentioned.

Over the weekend, the administration despatched a whole bunch of Venezuelan migrants and asylum-seekers to a brutal Salvadoran jail notorious for widespread human rights abuses. Many have been despatched to the jail beneath the not often used Alien Enemies Act, a wartime proclamation that offers presidents the extraordinary energy to jail and deport folks deemed enemy combatants with out due course of.

The Trump administration asserts the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is definitely a terrorist group and a wing of the Venezuelan state that’s actively concerned in an invasion of the United States. Deportations beneath the Alien Enemies Act have been paused by a decide — however not earlier than the administration expelled a whole bunch of individuals to El Salvador — in violation of the decide’s verbal order to divert planes again to the United States. The administration has been defiant of the decide for days, and it continues to name for an finish to his restraining order on additional flights to El Salvador.

In a submitting arguing that the decide should maintain his short-term restraining order in place, American Civil Liberties Union legal professional Lee Gelernt cited consultants who detailed the surprising situations within the Salvadoran jail system — filled with allegations of torture, human rights abuses, and enforced disappearances. The submitting famous “multiple” attorneys who had described shoppers “who were suddenly and without notice transferred to Texas, and removed to El Salvador despite upcoming asylum hearings and strong claims to that relief.”

“If the President can label any group as enemy aliens under the Act, and that designation is unreviewable, then there is no limit on who can be sent to a Salvadoran prison,” the submitting argued.

Among these believed to have been expelled to El Salvador was Reyes Barrios.

In a sworn declaration filed in court docket Thursday, to accompany Gelernt’s submitting, Reyes Barrios’ legal professional Linette Tobin mentioned Reyes Barrios fled Venezuela for the United States final yr, after he was tortured with electrical shocks and suffocation for protesting the authoritarian regime of the nation’s chief, Maduro.

Reyes Barrios entered the United States, after making an appointment on the CBP One cellphone app and presenting himself to immigration officers. He’s utilized for asylum and reduction beneath the Convention Against Torture. Reyes Barrios had a listening to set for April 17, Tobin wrote.

While in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, Reyes Barrios was positioned beneath most safety and “accused of being a Tren de Aragua gang member,” Tobin wrote. The accusation was based mostly on two issues, she mentioned: his tattoo, and an image of Reyes Barrios’ on social media, by which he’s making a “Rock & Roll” hand gesture.

The tattoo, Reyes Barrios’ lawyer mentioned, was benign. It exhibits a crown sitting atop a soccer ball and the phrase “Dios,” or “God.”

“DHS alleges that this tattoo is proof of gang membership. In reality, he chose this tattoo because it is similar to the logo for his favorite soccer team Real Madrid,” she wrote.

The proof supporting Reyes Barrios’ declare that he’s not a gang member is important: After submitting Venezuelan paperwork indicating he had no felony file, a number of employment letters, and “a declaration from the tattoo artist who rendered the tattoo,” alongside a number of comparable on-line photos, Reyes Barrios was faraway from most safety detention on the facility the place he was initially detained, his lawyer mentioned.

“Nevertheless,” Tobin wrote, “on March 10th or 11th, he was transferred from Otay Mesa [Detention Facility] to Texas without notice.”

Then, she wrote, “he was deported to El Salvador. Counsel and Family have lost all contact with him and have no information regarding his whereabouts or condition.”

Reyes Barrios’ uncle wrote on Facebook that “We were surprised to see him in the videos being released on social media of those deported to El Salvador,” DropSite News reported.

A DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, informed HuffPost in an assertion that Reyes Barrios “has tattoos that are consistent with those indicating TdA gang membership.”

“His own social media indicates he is a member of the vicious TdA gang,” McLaughlin mentioned, with out specifying additional. “That all said, DHS intelligence assessments go beyond a single tattoo and we are confident in our findings.”

Reyes Barrios’ story is considered one of many terrifying accounts of migrants within the United States seemingly being labeled as gang members — and doubtlessly being despatched to El Salvador’s brutal supermax jail referred to as CECOT with out due course of.

Among the opposite declarations filed in court docket Thursday, one man, recognized by his legal professional as JABV, was acknowledged by his brother in a video of expelled migrants being manhandled and despatched to the jail. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a key Trump ally, posted the video and mocked the decide’s order that was meant to halt the flights carrying the expelled migrants.

JABV had no removing order on the time of his removing, his lawyer Osvaldo E. Caro-Cruz said — a sign he was doubtless expelled beneath the Alien Enemies Act proclamation, which treats supposed Tren de Aragua gang members as an invading military. Like Reyes Barrios, JABV fled Venezuela as a consequence of political persecution, his lawyer mentioned. Caro-Cruz mentioned that whereas JABV was taking part in peaceable marketing campaign exercise for an opposition chief, he was “violently abducted” and detained for a number of days, throughout which period he was tortured, disadvantaged of meals and assaulted. Caro-Cruz famous he had video of Venezuelan police raiding JABV’s dwelling, “confirming that he was being actively persecuted by the Maduro regime due to his political opposition.”

After fleeing to the United States and pursuing asylum, a U.S. immigration doc falsely accused JABV of being a gang member, the lawyer mentioned. According to Caro-Cruz, that doc said: “Subject has gang-related tattoos which were photographed by [Customs and Border Protection Officer] Clesi. The tattoos are well-known tattoos that Tren de Aragua gang members tend to have. Subject denied being part of Tren de Aragua or any other gang.”

In reality, in keeping with the legal professional, the claims of gang affiliation are “entirely speculative and unsubstantiated.”

“His tattoos are a Rose, a Clock and a Crown with his son’s name on it. These are common in Venezuela and bear no exclusive association with gang affiliation,” he wrote, including that his shopper had no felony historical past in both Venezuela or the United States. He had a listening to schedule for April 7, Caro-Cruz mentioned. Nonetheless, on March 16, he discovered his shopper had been faraway from the United States with none discover to his legal professional or his household — a recurring theme within the declarations filed Thursday.

Caro-Cruz mentioned he nonetheless had “not been informed” about his shopper’s whereabouts.

Another man, EV, was equally imprisoned and tortured by the Venezuelan authorities after taking part in an anti-government protest. He additionally doesn’t have a removing order, his lawyer Austin Thierry wrote. Yet ICE alleged on immigration paperwork that EV’s tattoos “indicate he is a member of Tren de Aragua,” the lawyer recounted.

In reality, Thierry mentioned, “EV has various tattoos, such as tattoos of anime, flowers, and animals, that he chose to get for personal and artistic reasons.” A crown tattoo that “may be why ICE falsely accused him of gang membership,” is definitely a tribute to his grandmother, whose “date of death appears at the base of the crown,” the lawyer wrote.

Thierry mentioned he didn’t know the place EV was, however that he had not heard from him because the morning of March 15, when, like others who have been expelled by the Trump administration to El Salvador, EV had been moved to El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas.

One of the declarations Thursday was of the sister of a person believed to have been despatched to El Savador. Solanyer Michell Sarabia Gonzalez wrote that she and her 19-year-old brother, Anyelo Jose Sarabia, are each asylum-seekers who arrived within the United States from Venezuela in 2023. Her brother was detained throughout a routine ICE check-in in January, she wrote, and “the officers asked me whether my brother belonged to a gang and about a tattoo that is visible on his hand.”

Her brother had by no means been a part of any gang, she mentioned. The tattoo on his hand exhibits a rose — and he received it in Arlington, Texas, final yr “because he thought it looked cool.” Her brother has two different tattoos, she mentioned — one that claims “fuerza y valiente” (“strength and courage”) and one other with a Bible verse. “I did both of these tattoos when my brother was in Texas,” she mentioned, emphasizing that in addition they had no connection to any gang, and that her brother had no felony file in both Venezuela or the United States.

Since he was eliminated to El Salvador, she mentioned, she has not heard from him, although they’d beforehand spoken nearly each day throughout his U.S. detention. “I am extremely concerned about the health and safety of my little brother,” she wrote.

Another lawyer, Katherine Kim, described a potential shopper, RB, whose member of the family acknowledged him in a photograph of the migrants who’d been eliminated to El Salvador, regardless of him having no felony file, no removing order, and a court docket date set for March 21.

RB’s member of the family “believes that the government has falsely accused him of membership in Tren de Aragua based on a single tattoo, which is of a flower.”

Thursday’s declarations additionally embody a number of from legal professionals for particular person plaintiffs within the lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration — a handful of asylum-seekers within the United States who have been seemingly set to be expelled to El Salvador, however have been stored within the United States on the final minute after U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg halted their removals. This written order from Boasberg was separate from his verbal order in court docket Saturday that the federal government ought to flip any planes round that have been on their technique to El Salvador — the order the Trump administration defied.

In a number of declarations, a number of of the person plaintiffs’ attorneys described their shoppers being despatched in shackles from El Valle Detention Facility in Texas to a neighborhood airport. Once there, they have been placed on three planes — seemingly the identical three planes that might later land in El Salvador. Like others, the legal professionals emphasised that their shoppers had no gang affiliation.

But the handful of particular person plaintiffs have been spared — taken off the planes on the final minute.

The attorneys recounted that their shoppers all heard one thing comparable from an ICE officer: that they didn’t understand how fortunate they have been — that that they had all “just won the lottery.”