Attorneys and family members say some of the 238 men who were deported have no ties to the gang targeted in the sweep, the first major immigration operation since the White House took the unprecedented step of invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to conduct mass deportations without public evidence or due process.
Ivannoa Sanchez, 22, believes her husband, Jose Franco Carballo Tiapa, 26, is among the men sent to El Salvador.
The 26-year-old Venezuelan came to the U.S. in November 2023, surrendering to authorities before submitting an asylum claim. The man was released and made regular check-ins with immigration authorities, according to his wife, and had a planned court appearance in March before his arrest.
"He went to his routine ICE appointment and he didn't come out," Sanchez told ABC News.
She believes her husband, who she said has no gang ties, was targeted because he has tattoos.
"He has never done anything, not even a fine, absolutely nothing," she added. "We chose this country because it offers more security, more freedom, more peace of mind. But we didn't know it would turn into chaos."
Mirelis Casique said her son Francisco Javier GarcĂa Casique, 24, had no gang history but was also targeted in the operation because immigration officials believed he had gang tattoos. He was detained last year, but a judge released him under the condition of wearing an electronic monitoring device, she said.
“I told him to follow the country’s rules, that he wasn’t a criminal, and at most, they would deport him,” she told
The New York Times. “But I was very naïve — I thought the laws would protect him.”
The Trump administration has admitted in the deportation suit that “many” of those sent to the Salvadorian prison, which human rights officials have criticized as a “tropical gulag” with a history of abuse, do not have any criminal record, though it has framed this lack of evidence as evidence itself.
Ongoing lawsuit is challenging administration’s use of emergency wartime law to deport Venezuelans without due process
www.independent.co.uk
You people are fascist pieces of shit. Don't think your ass is protected just because you're white.