Mirelis Casique’s 24-year-old son final spoke to her on Saturday morning from a detention middle in Laredo, Texas. He advised her he was going to be deported with a gaggle of different Venezuelans, she stated, however he didn’t know the place they have been headed.
Shortly after, his identify disappeared from the web site of the U.S. immigration authorities. She has not heard from him since.
“Now he’s in an abyss with nobody to rescue him,” Ms. Casique stated on Sunday in an interview from her residence in Venezuela.
The deportation of 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador this weekend has created panic amongst households who worry that their kinfolk are amongst these handed over by the Trump administration to the Salvadoran authorities, apparently with out due course of.
The boys have been described by the White Home press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, as “terrorists” belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. She known as them “heinous monsters” who had just lately been arrested, “saving numerous American lives.” However a number of kinfolk of males believed to be within the group say their family members should not have gang ties.
On Sunday, the Salvadoran authorities launched photos of the lads being marched right into a infamous mega-prison in handcuffs in a single day, with their heads newly shaven.
Like different Venezuelan households, Ms. Casique has no proof that her son, Francisco Javier García Casique, is a part of the group, which was transferred to El Salvador on Saturday as a part of a deal between President Nayib Bukele and the Trump administration. The Salvadoran chief has supplied to carry the Venezuelan migrants on the expense of the U.S. authorities.
Nonetheless, Ms. Casique stated that not solely had her son’s identify disappeared from the web site of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she additionally acknowledged him in one of many pictures of the just lately arrived deportees that El Salvador’s authorities has circulated. When she noticed him within the {photograph}, she stated, she felt “damaged on the injustice” of what was going down.
Neither authorities has made public the names of the Venezuelan deportees, and a spokeswoman for the Salvadoran authorities didn’t reply to a request for affirmation that Ms. Casique’s son was a part of the group. The U.S. Division of Homeland Safety, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, didn’t reply to a request to verify whether or not Mr. García had been deported to El Salvador, both.
Ms. Casique stated she had recognized Mr. García by the tattoos on one in all his arms, in addition to by his construct and complexion, although his face was not seen. The picture exhibits a gaggle of males in white shirts and shorts with shaved heads, their arms restrained behind their backs.
Lately, Venezuelans have migrated to the US in report numbers, as their nation has spiraled into disaster below the federal government of Nicolás Maduro. As a result of Mr. Maduro, not like most different leaders within the area, has not accepted common deportation flights from the US, the Trump administration has been searching for different methods to deport Venezuelans.
On Sunday, Venezuela’s authorities forcefully denounced the switch of the migrants to El Salvador, saying in a press release that the US had used an outdated legislation — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — to hold out an unlawful operation that violated each American and worldwide legal guidelines.
From the beginning of his presidential marketing campaign, Mr. Trump has centered on Tren de Aragua and its presence in the US. When he deported a big group of Venezuelans final month to Guantánamo, a U.S. army base on Cuba, Mr. Trump additionally stated that the deportees belonged to the gang, a declare that some of their relatives have denied.
Neither the US nor the Salvadoran authorities has supplied proof that the migrants are related to Tren de Aragua, a gang that originated in Venezuela’s prisons however whose attain now extends all through Latin America. Mr. Trump, whose authorities designated it a terrorist group, has zeroed in on incidents that, he stated, present the presence of Tren de Aragua in the US.
Mr. Bukele stated that the deportees can be held for a minimum of a 12 months and made to carry out labor and attend workshops below a program known as “Zero Idleness.”
Ms. Casique stated her son had no gang affiliation and had entered the US to hunt asylum in late 2023, after a number of years spent working in Peru to help his household again residence. Throughout his journey north, he was injured in Mexico when he fell from a prepare, she stated.
Mr. García, who had turned himself over to the authorities on the U.S. border, was detained at a routine look earlier than immigration officers final 12 months after they noticed his tattoos, Ms. Casique stated.
The tattoos, which she says embrace a crown with the phrase “peace” in Spanish and the names of his mom, grandmother and sisters, led the authorities to put Mr. García below investigation and label him as a suspected member of Tren de Aragua, in keeping with Ms. Casique.
Mr. García remained in a detention middle in Dallas for 2 months, his mom stated, however a decide finally determined that he didn’t pose a hazard and allowed him to be launched so long as he wore an digital machine to trace his actions.
The New York Instances couldn’t independently confirm why he had been held and launched.
After Mr. Trump’s inauguration this 12 months, Mr. García grew to become apprehensive, however Ms. Casique remembered telling her son that he had nothing to worry: The administration stated it will go after criminals first.
However on Feb. 6, the authorities arrived at Mr. García’s door and took him into custody.
“I advised him to comply with the nation’s guidelines, that he wasn’t a prison, and at most, they’d deport him,” Ms. Casique stated. “However I used to be very naïve — I assumed the legal guidelines would shield him.”
Gabriel Labrador contributed reporting from San Salvador.
