Colombian-Venezuelan held in El Salvador not tied to gang, wife says
STORY: Deicy Aldana says her husband has no ties to criminal gangs.
Yet, she says U.S. immigration authorities told her Andres Guillermo Morales was deported from the U.S. over the weekend.
And now he, a Colombian-Venezuelan dual citizen, is being held in a high-security prison in El Salvador.
"I'm so worried because he's a human being, and they are violating his rights. It's not fair what they are doing to him and the other Venezuelans for being Venezuelans."
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Morales' case.
The Trump administration is facing a March 25 deadline to respond to a judicial request for more details on the deportations of hundreds of migrants to El Salvador.
This is as U.S. District Judge James Boasberg considers whether officials violated his order temporarily blocking the expulsions.
Trump had invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
He said this allowed him to deport alleged members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Those migrants are now being held in El Salvador, under an agreement with President Nayib Bukele's government.
Families of some of the men said that ICE told them their loved ones have tattoos linked to the violent gang.
"I don't know why they sent him there, just for having tattoos, tattoos that are not related to the Tren de Aragua... The tattoos that he had were the name of his mother, the name of his father.'
On Thursday, Aldana told Reuters her husband had a legal work permit as part of his U.S. asylum application when he was arrested by ICE in early February.
"He's a hard worker. He is a man who fights for his people. I don't know why they connected him to the Tren de Aragua if he has nothing to do with that. He doesn't have a criminal record in Colombia, and he doesn't have a criminal record in Venezuela; if he had one in the United States, they would have left him there to serve time, but he doesn't have any.'
Reuters has independently verified Morales' work authorization and was not able to immediately find any U.S. criminal convictions.
Aldana, a Colombian citizen, is now staying with her mother across the border in Venezuela.
She returned from the U.S. with her two young daughters following her husband's detention.
Aldana shared and Reuters confirmed paperwork showing her husband was raised along the two countries' border and has no criminal convictions in Colombia.
She says Morales had a signed deportation order for Colombia and was told by that country's San Francisco consulate in that he would be deported to Bogota.
"Yesterday, I spoke with the Colombian chancellery, where I explained that he had signed documents, and everything was ready for him to be sent to Bogota. I don't know why they sent him to El Salvador, they told me they were going to be on top of the case, they put me in contact with the consulate of El Salvador. Last night, I received an email from them telling me they would talk to the Salvadoran authorities and soon give him a response. Since then I know nothing more about him, I don't know where he is, I don't know how he is. He was sick, he hadn't received his medicines. I know nothing about him."
The Colombian foreign ministry has told Aldana they are following the case.
The ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
'I will do whatever I can to get him out, to help him get out of where he is."
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