As President Donald Trump dukes it out with federal courts over the power to deport people he suspects of being affiliated with transnational criminal gangs, new details are coming to light about just what the Trump administration is using as evidence to identify potential gang members.
And experts expressed horror over new reporting.
The administration's current plan is to ship large numbers of people out of the country to an infamous super-prison run in El Salvador under strongman president Nayib Bukele — though they have also discussed using the controversial facility at Guantanamo Bay for this purpose.
American Immigration Council strategist and civil rights lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick took to X to highlight some particularly egregious examples.
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"NEW: @MotherJones reports that one of the men renditioned to El Salvador is Neri Alvarado, who was working in Dallas as a baker. An ICE agent told him they were questioning all men with tattoos. Neri has an AUTISM AWARENESS TATTOO in honor of his 15-year-old brother with autism," noted Reichlin-Melnick. "An ICE agent told Neri Alvarado 'We're finding and questioning everyone who has tattoos,' and that's why he was arrested. Stunningly, after Neri explained his autism tattoos' meanings, THE ICE AGENT SAID HE WAS CLEAN. And yet he stayed detained — then got sent to El Salvador!"
Also removed under this same process was Venezuelan musician Arturo Suárez, who entered the country legally and has no criminal affiliations — but much like Alvarado, has tattoos, which was apparently the deciding factor.
"This is so disturbing," wrote Project Liberal's Joshua Reed Eakle.
"This is a scandal of historic proportions. But will enough people understand and care?" wrote Bulwark reporter Adrian Carrasquillo.
"Do gang members often have rainbow ribbon tattoos celebrating Autism Awareness?" wrote former GOP strategist turned Never Trump pundit Tim Miller.
"'Renditioned' is the correct term for what happened," wrote Refugees International president Jeremy Konyndyk. "These were not deportations...these people were renditioned unlawfully to a gulag outside the reach of US law."