The 137 Venezuelans indicated of being members of the Aragua train They were deported under the Foreign enemies lawa 1798 rule that gives the President a wide authority to stop and deport citizens of an enemy nation during times of war.
The same day of deportations, the judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked the administration’s ability to invoke that law, which made Trump He suggested that this magistrate should be dismissed. The magnate’s statements led the president of the Supreme Court, John Robertsto rebuke the president.
Alleged members of the Aragua Train in a prison in El Salvador, on March 16, 2025 after being deported by the United States. (EFE).
Boasberg It is demanding that the government give details about flights with deporteesbut the Department of Justice considers that this is unnecessary and considers the possibility of invoking the privilege of State Secrets Not to deliver what is required.
The other 101 deported Venezuelans are migrants They were expelled under regular immigration laws, said officials from the United States.
The government of Trump has not revealed the identities of the Deported. Nor has it shared the evidence or evidence against these people, something that is leading to the critics of the Republican government to point out that They are trampling civil liberties.
For example, the senator Richard DurbinDemocrat of Illinois, he said on the social network X that Trump’s government was “deporting immigrants without due process, based solely on his nationality.”
“The courts determine if people have broken the law, not a president acting alone … and not immigration agents by choosing who is imprisoned or deported,” he added.
Moving from alleged members of the Criminal Band of Aragua to the Cecot in El Salvador. (EFE).
According to the news chain Univisionin USA There are no statements by confirmed members of the Aragua train that allow to assemble an operational structure of the criminal gang in the country and identify its members and leaders. If the government has all that information, it has not made it public.
For its part, the chain CNN He informed that on Wednesday, when a reporter asked why the administration Trump He did not share basic information about the detainees, the White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitthe said that The Government would not reveal “operational details about an operation against terrorism”. He added that he has “the greatest degree of confidence in our agents of ICE”, When referring to the Immigration and Customs Control Service.
The United States press has directly asked the ICE on the way in which it was determined that the deportees were members of the Aragua trainbut there was no answer.
This week, in a statement filed in a federal court, an official of the ICE He said that The agents “carefully verified” the affiliations to gangs of each of the 261 deportees and provided broad descriptions of the crimes for which several of them have been arrested or convicted in the United States and abroad, CNN noted.
But in that same statement, the interim director of the ICE field office, Robert L. Cerna, He acknowledged that many of the deportees “have no criminal record in the United States.” He added that “that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time.”
“The lack of a criminal record does not indicate that they represent a limited threat,” Cerna wrote in the statement. He said that the shortage of information about them, on the other hand, “actually highlights the risk they represent … shows that they are terrorists for which we lack a complete profile.”
Yarelis Herrera holds a photo of his son Edwuar Hernández, who was deported from the United States to a Salvadoran prison. (Photo by Pedro Mattey / AFP).
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Those deported by migration should not be imprisoned
In El Salvador, Bukele’s government has also not officially informed about the evidence against deported Venezuelanssaid a Commerce The journalist David Bernalwho is an editor in the newspaper “The graphic press”.
“There has not even been published a list of the names of these people who are in Cecot,” he said.
He said that Bukele himself reported the weekend that the 238 deported Venezuelans were members of the Aragua train. However, the United States government clarified that 101 Venezuelans were expelled for their irregular immigration status.
Bernal said that in this case, The 101 Venezuelan migrants would not be in prison but in migrant shelters so that they are then helped to return to their country.
The journalist indicated that unofficially it is known that These 101 Venezuelans have been separated from the groupand they are giving them a different treatment. “They are not being treated as criminalsbut they are giving them different food and they have allowed more time outside the cells. ”
In addition, he said that they have been placed in wider cells, although that does not imply that they will immediately deport Venezuela. “It only implies that Apparently the Salvadoran government is wanting to take care of its backbecause it is already known that 101 people are not members of the Aragua train”
But What will happen to those who are members of the Aragua trainwhere they will be judged and how long they will be in the CECOT? Bernal said that the legal aspects that are deported has not been reported.
“The only thing that is known is that there is an agreement with the United States, which has requested that El Salvador Receive up to 300 people at the CECOT for a year. For that time the United States has promised to pay $ 6 million, that gives $ 20,000 for each ”, Bernal said.
He said that in USAthe Secretary of State, Marco Rubiohe said that El Salvador He comes to discover that some of those indicated is not from the Aragua train, he can send it to Venezuela, but that he has not explained how the mechanism will be to reach that conclusion or deadlines.
Venezuelans recognize their relatives
Yarelis Herrera holds his mobile phone with a photo of his son Edwuar Hernández, who was deported from the United States to a Salvadoran prison. (Photo by Pedro Mattey / AFP).
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The AFP agency reported that The Venezuelan Mervin Yamarte was recognized by his family in a video recorded in the CECOT and that was disclosed to the world. He was shaved head and gaze.
Mervin29 years old, and three friends with whom he crossed the Darienbetween Colombia and Panama, to arrive in the United States, they were arrested on Wednesday of last week at home in DallasTexas. Three days later, they were imprisoned in El Salvador, AFP said.
“My son already wanted to return because he said that was not the American dream, it was the American nightmare,” Mervin’s mother, Mercedes Yamarte, told AFP, who lives in The fishermenZulia state.
In Cañada Honda, Maracaibo, Yajaira Chiquinquirá Fuenmayor, 65, told AFP that his son, Alirio Belloso, He had informed him that he would be deported to Venezuela. He had been arrested on January 28.
Alirio had first migrated to Peru. He returned to Venezuela and then going to the United States.
Alirio’s wife, Noemí Briceño, wondered if for the tattoos who has a syndicate to belong to Aragua train.
“We saw news that talked about the tattoos of the Aragua train. My husband has tattooed to his niece, who died of leukemia, and the name of his daughter, of his mother. And a sand watch, because he told his daughter that there would be a time when he would no longer leave Venezuela, ”he explained to AFP Noemí.
