50+ Venezuelans Imprisoned in El Salvador Came to U.S. Legally, Never Violated Immigration Law
The government calls them all “illegal aliens.” But of the 90 cases where the method of crossing is known, 50 men report that they came legally to the United States, with advanced US government permission, at an official border crossing point. A Reuters survey of 50 men also placed the proportion of those who entered legally at about half. This isn’t surprising because about half of all the Venezuelans who have immigrated over the past two years came legally as well—either as refugees, parolees, or visa holders. The proportion isn’t what matters the most: the astounding absolute numbers are. Dozens of legal immigrants were stripped of their status and imprisoned in El Salvador.
These legal immigrants include a temporary visa holder and four men who were authorized to travel through the US refugee program. The government vetted these refugees abroad and concluded that they would face persecution, letting them resettle in the United States. The other 45 legal immigrants scheduled appointments using the CBP One app, through which they were permitted to seek entry. Among those with appointments, 24 were paroled into the United States, where they could live and work legally for up to two years, while the other 21 were detained at the port of entry.
These people came to the United States with advanced US government permission, were vetted and screened before arrival, violated no US immigration law, and the US government turned around and “disappeared” them without due process to a foreign prison. It is paying the Salvadoran government to continue to keep them incarcerated.
Who Is the U.S. Government Paying to Be Imprisoned?
The men were workers—construction laborers, pipe installers, cooks, delivery drivers, a soccer coach, a makeup artist, a mechanic, a veterinarian, a musician, and an entrepreneur. Most of those who were released quickly found jobs in the United States.
A majority of the men are fathers. Altogether, the men were trying to support 44 children. The US government did not inform their families, lawyers, or anyone else of their impending imprisonment at US government expense in a Salvadoran prison known for torture and other abuses that would be illegal inside the United States. Agents simply disappeared them without charge or trial or even acknowledgment, which is rightly considered a crime against humanity.
CBS News obtained a list of the flight manifests from March 15, but there was never any official recognition of that list, so no one could confirm the whereabouts of their loved ones. It turned out that the CBS list was incomplete, and two of these legal immigrants vanished without a trace. It took media investigations to reveal their whereabouts in the Salvadoran prison. In one case, ICE lied to the family before admitting that their relative was sent to the prison.
What’s the Evidence Against Them?
The US government asserts that they are “criminal terrorists” who are “confirmed” members of a criminal organization known as Tren de Aragua (TdA). Investigations by the New York Times, Bloomberg, and CBS News have all found that few of the imprisoned men have any criminal record. All these legal immigrants denied gang membership, and only two appear to have had a US criminal conviction of any kind, both for minor drug offenses. About two dozen of the legal immigrants were detained immediately at the port of entry where they were authorized to seek entry, so there is no possibility that they demonstrated any gang ties or committed any crimes inside the United States.
Most, at least 42, were labeled as gang members primarily based on their tattoos, which Venezuelan gangs do not use to identify members and are not reliable indicators of gang membership. According to court documents, DHS created a checklist to determine that heavily weights “dressing” like a gang member, using “gang signs,” and, most critically, tattoos. No criminal conviction, arrest, or even witness testimony is required.
DHS’s images of “TdA tattoos” include the Jordan logo, an AK-47, a train, a crown, “hijos,” “HJ,” a star, a clock, and a gas mask. But as the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin Melnick has shown, all of these supposed TdA tattoos were not taken from Venezuelan gang members but rather stolen by DHS from social media accounts that have nothing to do with TdA or Venezuela. For instance, DHS obtained its TdA “Jordan” from a Michael Jordan fan account in the United States. It pulled its AK-47 tattoo from a Turkish tattoo artist.
Because these men were denied due process, the public had no opportunity to obtain a real accounting of any evidence against them. DHS says, “We aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one.” Of course, they do share details every time that those details support their negative portrayal of this group.
Therefore, DHS’s failure to give any information on anyone else corroborates these men’s assertions that they are innocent. In one case, DHS has even tried to say that one imprisoned man “entered illegally … via CBP One,” which is incoherent and only further highlights how DHS views anyone it wants to expel as “illegal” regardless of how they entered.
Since DHS refuses to be transparent, we must often rely on media reporting and family accounts. However, these accounts often include official government documents, showing no criminal records and legal entries.
Among the supposedly damning tattoos from the legal immigrants were several roses, multiple clocks, crowns over the names of family members, playing cards used to cover up an ugly scar from a childhood accident, a song lyric from a reggaeton artist from Puerto Rico, the Real Madrid logo on a professional soccer player, and a reference to the video game Call of Duty on a teenager.
As Cato’s Ilya Somin points out, all people are entitled to due process under the US Constitution before the US government imprisons them. This is true whether they entered legally or illegally. But the fact that the US government now has the reputation of sending legal immigrants to foreign prisons without due process may deter many people from wanting to come legally and build their lives in a country where the rule of law is so absent.
Read the reports for each individual: Profiles of 50 Legal Immigrants Imprisoned in El Salvador
David J. Bier is the associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. This article, originally posted to the Cato Institute website, is published courtesy of the Cato Institute.
