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Immigration attorneys say a gay Venezuelan makeup artist seeking asylum in the U.S. was wrongly identified as a gang member and deported to El Salvador—a case becoming a flashpoint in the debate over the Trump administration’s deportation of hundreds of migrants to a notoriously inhumane El Salvador megaprison.
Lindsay Toczylowski, founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, she lost contact with her client, identified as a 31-year-old gay man from Venezuela, Andry (Toczylowski has withheld his full name due to safety precautions) who had no criminal history, when the Trump administration deported more than 230 migrants it claimed were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador on March 15.
Toczylowski said Andry from detention records the same day, and his name later appeared on an internal government list obtained by of migrants deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison known for human rights violations.
ICE wrongly detained Andry last year, when he sought asylum over persecution for being gay and his opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, because immigration officials thought his tattoos linked him to Tren de Aragua, according to and by Toczylowski.
Andry is among multiple migrants deported to El Salvador whose attorneys and family members have no gang affiliation or even criminal records, and took the appropriate legal steps to seek asylum in the U.S.
The Trump administration claims it had the authority to deport the migrants it suspected of gang affiliation without court hearings under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a decision blocked by District Court Judge James Boasberg, who says it’s not a valid claim.
“You are telling me this man is Tren De Aragua? He was so dangerous we had to send him to a foreign prison camp to be beaten with no due process? Do you have any soul left @marcorubio?” host of The Bulwark podcast, Tim Miller, , referencing Andry, along with photos his lawyers have shared of him posing with makeup brushes.
A barber from Venezuela, Franco José Caraballo Tiapa, 26, is among those included in a list obtained by of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador. He was detained by ICE in February and accused by the Department of Homeland Security of being a member of Tren de Aragua, though he has no criminal history in the U.S. and Venezuelan officials say he has no record there either, according to CBS, which reported the DHS record notes his tattoos but does not say they were linked to gang affiliation. His wife told CBS she lost contact with him March 15. A Venezuelan professional soccer player, Jerce Reyes Barrios, 36, was also deported to El Salvador after U.S. immigration officials alleged last year his tattoos were linked to gang affiliation, USA Today , citing his attorney, Linette Tobin, who said the tattoo DHS cited was of a soccer ball and rosary. Barrios was seeking asylum in the U.S. after he was arrested and tortured in Venezuela for protesting Maduro, Tobin told the . DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said officials are “confident” in Barrios’ gang affiliation in a statement to the New York Post in response to claims he was wrongly deported.
Philip Holsinger, a photojournalist who documented the migrants’ intake into the El Salvador prison, wrote for magazine that “one young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor” and said “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.” Holsinger wrote that he believed him, because the man “didn’t look like what [he] expected—he wasn’t a tattooed monster.”
Inmates at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot, are kept in cells equipped with metal bunks and crowded with dozens of inmates for 23 ½ hours a day, according to . The cells have no sheets, pillows or mattresses, inmates are not allowed books and meals are served through the cell bars, CNN reported. The State Department also documented credible reports of “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions,” including incidents it described as “torture,” such as beatings by guards and the use of electric shocks in a 2023 The facility was opened two years ago amid El Salvador’s crime crackdown and houses as many as 20,000 prisoners, many of whom are accused murderers or drug dealers.
The Trump administration repeatedly resisted requests from Boasberg last week for more information about when and why the migrants were flown to El Salvador as he seeks to determine whether it violated his order to turn around flights carrying migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration has claimed the flights took off before Boasberg issued his ruling on March 15, hours after Trump invoked the wartime authority, and has argued Boasberg’s written order did not include the instructions he gave verbally less than an hour earlier to turn the flights around. The Trump administration has also challenged Boasberg’s authority over restricting his use of the Alien Enemies Act.
Lindsay Toczylowski, founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, she lost contact with her client, identified as a 31-year-old gay man from Venezuela, Andry (Toczylowski has withheld his full name due to safety precautions) who had no criminal history, when the Trump administration deported more than 230 migrants it claimed were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador on March 15.
Toczylowski said Andry from detention records the same day, and his name later appeared on an internal government list obtained by of migrants deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison known for human rights violations.
ICE wrongly detained Andry last year, when he sought asylum over persecution for being gay and his opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, because immigration officials thought his tattoos linked him to Tren de Aragua, according to and by Toczylowski.
Andry is among multiple migrants deported to El Salvador whose attorneys and family members have no gang affiliation or even criminal records, and took the appropriate legal steps to seek asylum in the U.S.
The Trump administration claims it had the authority to deport the migrants it suspected of gang affiliation without court hearings under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a decision blocked by District Court Judge James Boasberg, who says it’s not a valid claim.
“You are telling me this man is Tren De Aragua? He was so dangerous we had to send him to a foreign prison camp to be beaten with no due process? Do you have any soul left @marcorubio?” host of The Bulwark podcast, Tim Miller, , referencing Andry, along with photos his lawyers have shared of him posing with makeup brushes.
A barber from Venezuela, Franco José Caraballo Tiapa, 26, is among those included in a list obtained by of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador. He was detained by ICE in February and accused by the Department of Homeland Security of being a member of Tren de Aragua, though he has no criminal history in the U.S. and Venezuelan officials say he has no record there either, according to CBS, which reported the DHS record notes his tattoos but does not say they were linked to gang affiliation. His wife told CBS she lost contact with him March 15. A Venezuelan professional soccer player, Jerce Reyes Barrios, 36, was also deported to El Salvador after U.S. immigration officials alleged last year his tattoos were linked to gang affiliation, USA Today , citing his attorney, Linette Tobin, who said the tattoo DHS cited was of a soccer ball and rosary. Barrios was seeking asylum in the U.S. after he was arrested and tortured in Venezuela for protesting Maduro, Tobin told the . DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said officials are “confident” in Barrios’ gang affiliation in a statement to the New York Post in response to claims he was wrongly deported.
Philip Holsinger, a photojournalist who documented the migrants’ intake into the El Salvador prison, wrote for magazine that “one young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor” and said “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.” Holsinger wrote that he believed him, because the man “didn’t look like what [he] expected—he wasn’t a tattooed monster.”
Inmates at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot, are kept in cells equipped with metal bunks and crowded with dozens of inmates for 23 ½ hours a day, according to . The cells have no sheets, pillows or mattresses, inmates are not allowed books and meals are served through the cell bars, CNN reported. The State Department also documented credible reports of “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions,” including incidents it described as “torture,” such as beatings by guards and the use of electric shocks in a 2023 The facility was opened two years ago amid El Salvador’s crime crackdown and houses as many as 20,000 prisoners, many of whom are accused murderers or drug dealers.
The Trump administration repeatedly resisted requests from Boasberg last week for more information about when and why the migrants were flown to El Salvador as he seeks to determine whether it violated his order to turn around flights carrying migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration has claimed the flights took off before Boasberg issued his ruling on March 15, hours after Trump invoked the wartime authority, and has argued Boasberg’s written order did not include the instructions he gave verbally less than an hour earlier to turn the flights around. The Trump administration has also challenged Boasberg’s authority over restricting his use of the Alien Enemies Act.
