The Trump administration is facing growing questions about recent deportation flights to El Salvador. Immigration officials removed hundreds of Venezuelan migrants and sent them to a maximum security prison in the Central American country. Yet, questions are growing about who the people were and how the Trump administration confirmed their alleged gang links.

People have a lot of questions about the deportation flights to El Salvador

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The Trump administration is hiding behind the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the recent deportations. Immigration officials and the federal government are arguing that the people deported represent members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Yet, when asked for more information, they could not provide it to the courts. However, family members of some of those deported are sounding the alarm.

Family members of multiple deportees are speaking out. They claim their loved ones locked in a mega-prison in El Salvador are innocent. The prison is home to some of the most violent gang members in the country. Now, it is housing immigrants sent by the United States, and some have no criminal record.

One story emerging is that of Andry, whose last name is not being used for safety. Andry is a gay hairstylist and makeup artist who was living in the U.S. and was seeking asylum. According to The Washington Blade, the federal government is using Andry’s tattoos to justify his removal. The federal government claims some tattoos are indicative of Tren de Aragua membership.

“Something where the government, kind of unliterally, can just say that someone is a gang member based on tattoos, without any offer of proof, without having to go to court to say that,” Immigrant Defenders Law Center Litigation and Advocacy Director Alvaro M. Huerta told The Washington Blade. “Then take them externally to what [is] effectively a prison state (El Salvador), it certainly is completely just different than what we’ve seen.”

The federal government allegedly deported people with no criminal records or gang affiliation

The fear gripping the Venezuelan community comes down to tattoos. Immigration authorities arrested Arturo Suárez-Trejo and sent him to El Salvador under the guise of national security. Suárez-Trejo came to the U.S. in September 2024 and presented himself at California’s San Ysidro border crossing. From there, he legally sought asylum.

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According to his wife, he has spent his life in music and wanted to expand his career. She claims that his tattoos were the reason he was detained and sent to El Salvador.

Suárez-Trejo’s family thought he would be sent to Venezuela. However, only through photos of inmates did the family learn of Suárez-Trejo’s fate.

“We haven’t received any response from the Salvadoran government,” Nelson Suárez-Trejo, Arturo’s brother, told El País. “We don’t even know what charges he faces. He had no criminal record.”

Arturo and Andry were sent to El Salvador without credible proof of gang affiliation. They are forever marked by the deportation to a prison built to hold the most dangerous gang members. Innocent people who had court dates for the asylum claims have been disappeared by a zealous, authoritarian leader set to do harm at all costs.

The forced disappearance should set off alarm bells for everyone

The Trump administration is quite literally trying to disappear people they deem to be a threat with no evidence. More than 200 people were rounded up for deportation flights to El Salvador, and it is becoming apparent that there was no proper vetting. Attorneys and family members cannot speak with their loved ones at the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

The Trump administration’s actions violate freedom and the rule of law. By suspending due process, the Trump administration is working aggressively to deport whomever it pleases. Regardless of immigration status or citizenship, laws protect people from this kind of treatment. The U.S. has fought wars around the world and engaged in diplomatic actions to curb this behavior elsewhere.

The Trump administration is able to do this because it invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798. For weeks, the Trump administration has been in court due to lawsuits stemming from the invocation of the law. Immigration authorities defied one judge’s order to bring the planes back so those detained could have a proper process to vet the seriousness of the claims against them.

“District court here hasn’t called into question the constitutionality of the Alien Enemies Act,” Judge Patricia Millett said of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s original order. “It’s been upheld, as you said, as a part of the war power. That’s not the question here. The question is whether the implementation of this proclamation will be without any process to determine whether people qualify under it.”

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