Till 5 weeks in the past, Arturo Suarez was an expert singer, performing in the USA as he waited for his asylum declare to be processed.
Initially from Venezuela, he had entered the US by means of correct, authorized channels.
However he’s now imprisoned in a infamous jail in El Salvador, despatched there by the Trump administration, regardless of seemingly by no means having confronted trial or dedicated any crime. The White Home claims he’s a gang member however has not supplied proof to help this allegation.
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Arturo Suarez, in a music video, is now in a infamous jail in El Salvador
“He is not a gang member,” Nelson says, adamantly, “I’ve come to the conclusion that it has to be because of the tattoos. If you don’t have a criminal record, you haven’t committed any crime in the United States, what other reason could there be? Because you’re Venezuelan?”
Arturo, 34, was recording a music video inside a home in March when he was arrested by immigration brokers.
He was first taken to a deportation centre in El Paso, Texas, after which, it seems, placed on to a navy flight to El Salvador.
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Nelson Suarez insists his brother Arturo isn’t a gang member
His household haven’t heard from him since. Legal professionals and immigrant rights teams have been unable to make contact with any of the greater than 200 Venezuelan males despatched to the CECOT jail, which holds members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs.
Tattoo clue to Arturo Suarez’s whereabouts
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A bunch of inmates are processed to be imprisoned within the CECOT jail in EL Salvador. Pic: Reuters
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Nelson Suarez believes that is his brother Arturo Suarez as a consequence of his distinctive hummingbird tattoo. Pic: Reuters
“You can see the hummingbird tattoo on his neck,” Nelson says, pointing to the image. He says Arturo needed a hummingbird in reminiscence of their late mom. Arturo has 33 tattoos in whole, together with a piano, poems and verses from the Bible.
It could possibly be that one, or extra, of these tattoos landed him on the centre of President Trump’s anti-immigration showpiece. Nelson exhibits me paperwork which point out that Arturo didn’t have a legal file in Venezuela, Chile, Colombia or the USA, the 4 international locations he has lived in.
In March, Donald Trump signed the Alien Enemies Act, a legislation from 1798 which has been invoked simply 3 times earlier than, in wartime.
It permits the president to detain and deport immigrants dwelling legally within the US if they’re from international locations deemed “enemies” of the federal government. On this occasion, Mr Trump claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had “infiltrated the United States” and was “conducting irregular warfare”.
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Alleged gang members imprisoned within the CECOT jail in El Salvador. Pic: Reuters
Gang image tattoos
Immigration officers have centred on sure tattoos being gang symbols. Immigration officers have been supplied with a doc referred to as the “Alien Enemy Validation Guide”, in response to a court docket submitting from the American Civil Liberties Union. The doc offers a point-based system to find out if an immigrant in custody “may be validated” as a gang member.
Migrants who rating six factors and better could also be designated as members of the Tren de Aragua gang, in response to the doc. Tattoos which fall underneath a “symbolism” class rating 4 factors and social media posts “displaying” gang symbols are two factors. Tattoos thought of suspicious, in response to the doc, embrace crowns, stars and the Michael Jordan Jumpman emblem.
Jerce Reyes Barrios’s story
One other of the lads despatched to CECOT jail is 36-year-old Jerce Reyes Barrios, who fled Venezuela final yr after marching in anti-government protests. He’s a former footballer and soccer coach.
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Jerce Reyes Barrios
She says he was detained in a most safety jail within the US whereas awaiting his asylum appointment. However earlier than that appointment occurred, he was flown to the El Salvador jail.
Ms Tobin says the DHS deported Reyes Barrios as a result of they designated him a Tren De Aragua gang member based mostly on two items of proof.
The primary, she says, is a tattoo of the Actual Madrid soccer workforce emblem surrounded by rosary beads. She has since obtained a declaration from the tattoo artist stating that Reyes Barrios simply needed a picture which depicted his favorite workforce.
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Jerce Reyes Barrios’s lawyer says he has a tattoo of the Actual Madrid emblem surrounded by rosary beads
The second piece of proof, she says, is {a photograph}, which she exhibits me, of Reyes Barrios in a sizzling tub with pals when he was a university scholar 13 years in the past.
He’s making a gesture which could possibly be interpreted as “rock and roll”, however which she says has been interpreted as a gang image.
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Lawyer Linette Tobin says this gesture has been interpreted as a gang image
Distraught household in despair
Reyes Barrios has no legal file in his dwelling nation. “I’ve never known anything like this,” Ms Tobin says.
“My client was deported to a third country and we have no way of getting in touch with him. His family are distraught and in despair, they cry a lot, not knowing what is going on with him. We want him returned to the United States to have a hearing and due process.”
Ms Tobin says she and different attorneys representing males despatched to the El Salvador jail are attempting to ascertain a UN working group on enforced disappearances to do a wellness examine on them as a result of the jail is totally “incommunicado”.
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17 March: US migrants deported to El Salvador
Reyes Barrios has an immigration listening to scheduled for 17 April, Ms Tobin says, which the Trump administration is attempting to dismiss on the grounds that he’s not within the US anymore.
Within the meantime, youngsters he used to educate soccer for in his hometown of Machiques in Venezuela have been holding a prayer vigil for him and calling for his launch.
The secretary of the DHS, Kristi Noem, visited CECOT final month and posed for photographs standing in entrance of inmates behind bars.
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Division of Homeland Safety secretary Kristi Noem visited CECOT in March. Pic: Reuters
“Do not come to our country illegally,” she stated, “you will be removed, and you will be prosecuted.” Donald Trump had promised throughout his election marketing campaign to clamp down on immigration, railing towards undocumented immigrants and claiming immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”.
I ask Arturo Suarez’s brother, Nelson, how he felt watching Ms Noem posing within the jail, understanding that his brother is perhaps shut by.
“I feel bad,” he says, “I feel horrible, because in those images we only see criminals. With my brother, I feel it is more a political issue. They needed numbers, they said, these are the numbers, and now, let’s throw them to the lions.”
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pic: AP
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s story
The Trump administration has admitted that a minimum of one man despatched to the El Salvador jail was despatched by “administrative error”. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was dwelling in Maryland, was despatched to CECOT regardless of a choose’s earlier ruling in 2019 that granted him authorized safety to remain within the US.
The White Home has alleged Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, however his attorneys argued there isn’t a proof to show this.
A federal choose has ordered Garcia should be returned to the US by Monday 7 April. In a publish on X, White Home deputy chief of employees Stephen Miller referred to the choose as a “Marxist”, who “now thinks she’s president of El Salvador”.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: “We suggest the judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador.”
