“When we got to the [U.S.], we were little guys,” Jose told Raw Story via Zoom from El Salvador, where the brothers have been staying for two months with a 69-year-old man, a childhood friend of their grandmother.
“We didn't [know] exactly what was going on. Some people might say, yes, we knew, but in reality, we were child[ren]. We didn't understand exactly what was happening.”
Like others across the U.S., the brothers showed up to a routine check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) only to end up detained and deported, which was “completely shocking,” Jose said.
Now, the brothers are waiting on a decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals regarding a motion based on “ineffective assistance” from prior counsel in Georgia, who never told the brothers for seven years they might qualify for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a path to lawful permanent residency “enacted to protect kids who were children under the age of 21 who have been abused, neglected or abandoned by one or both of their parents,” said their attorney, Ala Amoachi, based in East Islip, N.Y.
The brothers’ father abandoned them at ages 1 and 2, Amoachi told Raw Story. They attended an ICE check-in in New York on March 14 while living in Long Island with their legal guardian, their stepfather, Juan Carlos Mendoza Henriquez, to pursue their case for relief.
They were were deported to El Salvador May 7.
Josue Trejo Lopez in El Salvador (Photo provided by the Law Offices of Ala Amoachi & Associates)
Jose and Josue now are hoping the U.S. courts, or even President Donald Trump, will give them an opportunity to be reunited with their mother and 8-year-old U.S. citizen brother, who has a seizure disorder and rare congenital neurological condition.
“If I had a chance to talk to President Donald Trump … I would ask for ourselves, my brother and I, that if we can get a second chance to go back to the country that we call our home,” Jose said.
“I would tell him that to consider the kids, basically the dreamers … this is not our fault that this is happening.”
'We are not bad guys'
Since taking office, Trump has taken a hardline approach to cracking down on illegal immigration. This week, the White House said it is targeting the “worst of the worst — criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, gangbangers and other violent criminals.”
In reality, only 35 percent of individuals booked into ICE facilities between Oct. 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025 had criminal convictions, most of which are immigration or traffic violations, and only 6 percent of known immigrant murderers have been arrested, according to NBC News.
Even alleged nonviolent misdemeanor offenders have been swept up in increased ICE detention efforts, including a breastfeeding mother, Raw Story exclusively reported.
Last week Trump signed into law his “Big Beautiful Bill” spending package, which includes the largest congressional infusion of funds into immigration enforcement and border security: $170 billion, including $75 billion for ICE.
“I understand that there might be criminals, and those guys need to be locked up or get deported because they're damaging the country,” Jose said.
“We are not bad guys. We never committed a crime. We didn't have a charge of anything, neither at school, neither with the law.”
The boys said they don’t even have traffic violations. Josue, who missed his high school graduation in May despite his lawyer’s efforts to secure his release in order to attend, said he only drove a car once with his learner’s permit.
“I think people need to hear those stories because they need to face the realities of what kind of people these policies really affect and not all the PR that [ICE] is pushing that they're arresting only people with criminal records and all these violent individuals,” Amoachi said.
“I've only seen people picked up in extremely sympathetic situations among my clientele.”
Amoachi, who helped set up a GoFundMe for the family and created a Change.org petition which received nearly 17,000 signatures, said she’s heard from unexpected people moved by the “exceptional” case.
“There have been a lot of people who are Trump supporters, and generally in favor of his policies, where their stories still affect those people,'” Amoachi said.
“People are saying, ‘that's not right. This crosses the boundary,' which I think is really special.”
The White House forwarded Raw Story's questions to the Department of Homeland Security.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Raw Story in an emailed statement: “Both Jose and Josue Trejo-Lopez illegally entered country under the Obama administration in 2016. They have had a final order of removal since 2018, and even went through the appeals process which was dismissed.”
In response, Amoachi told Raw Story the DHS statement “misrepresents both the facts and the law."
"Jose and Josue entered the United States as minors in 2016 and consistently complied with ICE check-ins over the years. Enforcement action was not taken until this administration — precisely as they were actively pursuing viable legal relief," Amoachi said.
Amoachi said the brothers' removal "disregarded" their petition for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.
"Had they received competent legal guidance, they likely would have secured lawful permanent residency by now," she said. "Deporting them while these remedies were pending constitutes a clear denial of due process."
Amoachi said DHS references to "legal" and "illegal" citizens are "reductive and misleading" because "immigration status exists along a continuum," with many obtaining lawful status through asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status or other humanitarian protections.
"To treat them as devoid of rights while they actively pursue those remedies is both legally inaccurate and morally indefensible," she said.
‘Nightmare’
Amoachi said she coordinated psychological evaluations for Jose and Josue, and “they were both diagnosed with PTSD and depression as a result of their detention and removal."
The brothers spent nearly half their lives in the U.S. and were "suddenly torn from the only community and family they’ve ever known," she said.
“It just gives you an idea of how much trauma we're creating in the United States on all of these young people, children, even adults, just from the mere fact of them being detained when they had absolutely no mental health concerns prior to that,” Amoachi said.
The brothers confirmed their diagnoses. Jose said he had experienced nightmares about his mother and himself being arrested by ICE at Home Depot, and Josue said his guardian in El Salvador told him to be careful after someone flashed a “gang salute” his way.
Jose said he and his brother don’t go outside or talk to others.
“I'm thinking about, ‘Hey, when am I going to go back to my family? When am I going to have the opportunity to go back to the country that I call our home?'’” Jose said.
Jose Trejo Lopez in El Salvador (Photo provided by the Law Offices of Ala Amoachi & Associates)
“All the time you're thinking about what the future is going to look like for you … We don't have moments to feel basically not stressed."
The brothers said they were first sent to a federal detention facility in Buffalo, N.Y., then were transferred to Alexandria, La., where “they were being treated inhumanely,” Amoachi said.
Jose and Amoachi told Raw Story officers at the Alexandria facility never allowed their underwear to be laundered, and they did not get a change of clothes for five days. Only after Amoachi complained were their shirts and pants washed, but they were left without clothes “in freezing cold temperatures” during that time, she said.
Amoachi shared with Raw Story a phone call recording of an ICE representative who said "this is a staging facility, and we don't do the changing of clothing."
Jose said the “nightmare” started on the flight to Louisiana where he alleges he and his brother were shackled and not allowed to use the bathroom. When they arrived, Jose said, he went for hours without water, eventually drinking from a fountain with “algae” that led him to have diarrhea.
The food was “cold” and “nasty,” and they were subjected to racist comments, Jose said.
“Treatment in there is really awful,” Jose said.
“They treat you like animals, basically, and that's how they see you.”
Amoachi said at one point the boys were separated, and Josue was “threatened by other detainees” when he was put in a mixed population with individuals with criminal records.
“If you try to complain about something in the detention facilities, they're gonna send you to a place that they call a ‘shoe,'” Jose said, referring to solitary confinement.
The Department of Homeland Security denied any mistreatment of detainees.
"Any claim that there is a subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are false. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers," McLaughlin said.
"Ensuring the safety, security and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE."
McLaughlin said the Alexandria facility was "just given [a] superior rating after an inspection in February."
"Why does the media continue to fall for the sob stories of illegal aliens in detention and villainize ICE law enforcement?" McLaughlin added.
Amoachi pushed back, saying: "As an immigration attorney with 15 years of experience, I have represented countless individuals who have endured inhumane conditions in ICE custody: prolonged deprivation of food and water, denial of medical care, dangerously cold 'hieleras,' constant fluorescent lighting, and abusive or discriminatory treatment."
"These are not isolated incidents — they reflect systemic failures for which ICE must be held accountable. In Jose and Josue’s case, the psychological harm has been profound," she added.
McLaughlin encouraged the use of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) app to participate in a financial and travel assistance program announced in May, which allows illegal immigrants who self-deport to receive a flight to their home country and a $1,000 completion stipend after arrival.
"We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream,” McLaughlin said. “If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return."
The American Immigration Lawyers Association called the program a "trap" in a May statement. Amoachi said McLaughlin's reference to the program was "legally incorrect."
"Noncitizens who depart under a removal order — regardless of the app used — often remain subject to harsh bars to reentry, including five- to 20-year bars," she said.
"Those who depart even without a removal order may face three- and 10-year bars for unlawful presence. In many cases, this so-called 'voluntary' departure forecloses the possibility of ever lawfully returning to the United States.
"Government agencies have a duty to inform the public — not to weaponize misinformation or stigmatize vulnerable populations. The true victims here are not ICE officers, but young people like Jose and Josue — whose lives, futures and families have been shattered by unjust policies.
The time is long overdue for truth, accountability, and meaningful reform."
‘Mentally destructive’
Josue and Jose said they are concerned about their mother and their brother with special needs. Josue said what he misses most is cooking with his little brother and carrying him around.
“Hopefully they give us, me and my brother, a second chance because we're not criminals. We did nothing bad, and we still have dreams,” Josue told Raw Story.
"We are dreamers, so we want to complete those dreams.”
Josue said his first-ever job was working in the kitchen in the detention facility. He aspires to go to welding school. Jose wants to become a trader on Wall Street, to “make money and help my mom out, and basically my family, and then have my own family.”
Josue Trejo Lopez (Photo provided by the Law Offices of Ala Amoachi & Associates)
The brothers’ legal guardian, Juan Carlos Mendoza Henriquez, 49, told Raw Story through an interpreter arranged by the Amoachi’s law office, that the brothers' mother called him as soon as the brothers were detained.
“There was just a lot of mental commotion, and we tried to do things according to the law," said Mendoza Henriquez, a restaurant worker.
“It's really sad to see that things went wrong.”
For Jose and Josue’s mother, their deportation has been “mentally destructive to her, and she says she doesn't know how much longer she can go through this because of the separation,” Mendoza Henriquez said.
Mendoza Henriquez said the brothers are “really good people,” and the situation has also been “very difficult” for him.
“This has also been hard for me mentally,” he said. “You can't get over it overnight."
Still, the brothers and their family members remain optimistic Amoachi will help them reunite.
“That's the last thing I can lose, my hope,” Mendoza Hernandez said.
Amoachi said Josue and Jose were her clients prior to their detention, but she is now representing them pro-bono because “I couldn't give up on this fight.”
