In a poor neighborhood of the Venezuelan city of Maracay, the mother of 24-year-old Francisco José García Casique was waiting for him on Saturday.
It had been almost 18 months since her son had migrated to the US to start a new life. But he then told his mother that he was being deported back to Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, for being an illegal immigrant in the US. They had a conversation that morning, just before he was to be deported.
“I thought it was a good sign that he was being deported [to Caracas],” Myrelis Casique López remembered. His mother wanted him home, but he never came back. While watching a TV news broadcast this Sunday, Ms Casique was taken aback. She saw her son, but he was not in the US or Venezuela, but about 1,430 miles away in El Salvador.
Mervin Yamarte’s family in Venezuela thought the 29-year-old – arrested by US authorities amid President Donald Trump’s migrant crackdown – would be put on a deportation flight home.
Instead, they learned he had been flown to El Salvador after spotting him in a video, head… pic.twitter.com/qYNRvtGj4d
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 20, 2025
The news reports showed footage of 238 Venezuelans who were sent by the US authorities to the Cecot or Francisco José García Casique, which is a notorious mega-jail. She saw men in shackles on their feet and hands with their heads shaven. They were forcefully escorted by heavily armed security guards.
The Donald Trump administration claims that all of the deportees are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. It is the same gang which was found in the White House’s crosshairs. It is also a powerful multi-national crime gang, which was recently declared a foreign terrorist organisation by Trump. The group has been accused of drug smuggling, sex trafficking and killings both at home and in other US cities. Ms Casique claimed that she was certain that it was his son, even though there is no official list of names.
“It’s him. It’s him,” she said, as she gestured towards the TV showing a man seated with a shaved bowed head, on a prison floor along with others. She added, “I recognize his features,” and the tattoo visible on his arm. She even said that he is innocent.
The US immigration officials have claimed that the detainees were “carefully vetted” and also verified as gang members before they were flown to El Salvador. The officials stated that they used evidence collected from surveillance, testimonies and police encounters to vet them.
“Our job is to send the terrorists out before anyone else gets r—ped or m—rdered,” Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller stated on Wednesday.
Many of the detainees do not hold US criminal records, but a US immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official said in court documents. In fact, they are being deported under a law which was last invoked at the time of war. Under this law it is not required for the detainees to be charged with a crime.
Anyone missing a father, husband, brother or son that may have been sent to a South American Super gang lockdown illegally, without due process, yesterday by Trump and his ICE crackers? This prison is in El Salvador and the deported are more than welcome here. (New York Post) pic.twitter.com/wJhfs9gFu0
— Robin Gray (@RobinGr15040436) March 18, 2025
The deportees who have criminal records include migrants who are arrested under charges ranging from fentanyl trafficking, kidnapping and murder to operating a gang-run brother to home invasion, as per the Trump administration.
In Garcia’s case, his mother believes that her son was not involved in any criminal activity. Garcia left for Venezuela in 2019 when he first went to Peru looking for a new job, as per BBC. He was hit by the overlapping economic, social and political crisis that engulfed the country. He crossed the US border illegally in September 2023.
Garcia’s mother has not seen him for over 6 years now. “He doesn’t belong to any criminal gang, either in the US or in Venezuela… he’s not a criminal,” Ms Casique said. “What he’s been is a barber.”
“Unfortunately, he has tattoos,” she added. She is convinced that the roses and names of his family on his body have led to his deportation and detention. It is through the tattoos that she and her family members recognised him in the picture of the deportees in El Salvador.
