Hi, we are Mother Jones reporters Isabela Dias and Noah Lanard.
Over the last week, we’ve reported on the more than 230 Venezuelans the Trump administration sent to an El Salvador prison in mid-March—in defiance of a judge’s order and almost entirely without due process.
After messaging dozens of people on Facebook and TikTok, we were able to talk to the relatives and lawyers of 10 men. Each was accused of gang affiliation and now finds themselves imprisoned in President Nayib Bukele’s notorious mega-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. But our reporting shows significant problems with the Trump administration’s actions.
In all of these cases, relatives said their loved ones didn’t have ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua—the group the Trump administration has charged with “invading” the United States. The characterization of an invasion is crucial for Trump because his administration is invoking the Alien Enemies Act—a law from 1798 last used during World War II for Japanese incarceration—to conduct summary deportations. Several of the men had hearings coming up in US immigration courts. Instead of having a chance to present evidence to American judges, these men were tricked into thinking they were being deported to Venezuela and reunited with their families.
So, what did the men all have in common? They had tattoos.
One case in particular makes clear the extent to which the Trump administration appears to have actively sought out Venezuelan men with tattoos prior to flying them to El Salvador. “You’re here because of your tattoos,” an ICE agent told Neri Alvarado Borges, who was picked up in the Dallas area in February. “We’re finding and questioning everyone who has tattoos.”
And what are some of Alvarado's tattoos? One is an autism awareness ribbon that has the name of his 15-year-old autistic brother. His other two tattoos are similarly innocuous. Yet, somehow, he now finds himself trapped and cut off from his family in an infamous Salvadoran prison.
If you would like to know more about Alvarado and many others’ stories, check out our new piece.
—Isabela Dias and Noah Lanard
