Deported Venezuelan man files abuse complaint against the US government
Thursday's complaint is the first of its kind from one of the more than 250 Venezuelan men sent in March to the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), a maximum-security prison in El Salvador known for human rights abuses.
In filing a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 27-year-old barber Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel has taken a first step towards suing the Trump administration.
He and his lawyers from the Democracy Defenders Fund are seeking $1.3m in damages for alleged abuse.
Rengel claims the Trump administration falsely accused him of being a gang member in order to circumvent his right to due process and swiftly deport him.
'For more than four months, Rengel languished in El Salvador – which is not his country of origin and a place where he has no ties – where he suffered physical, verbal and psychological abuse,' the complaint said.
President Trump campaigned for a second term on the promise that he would implement a policy of mass deportation, and in March, the Republican leader invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the rapid expulsions of alleged gang members.
That law, however, had been invoked only three times prior in US history – and only during times of war.
Critics accused Trump of overstepping his constitutional authority by leveraging the law to advance his domestic platform, while trampling on the rights of immigrants. Trump, however, argued that the law was necessary to stem what he described as an 'invasion' of criminals into the US.
Rengel was arrested on March 13 as part of that deportation sweep under the Alien Enemies Act.
According to his complaint, immigration agents nabbed him in the car park outside his apartment in Irving, Texas, and accused him of being a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua based on his tattoos.
Rengel was in the process of seeking legal status. He had entered the US in June 2023 after successfully receiving an appointment through the CBP One app, which was, at the time, the official portal for asylum claims and other immigration processing at the US-Mexico border.
He had an appointment before an immigration judge scheduled for 2028.
But according to his complaint, his life was upended when he was arrested and sent to an immigration detention facility. There, he said, members of the DHS falsely indicated he would be returned to his native Venezuela.
Instead, he was placed on a deportation flight to El Salvador.
Cameras filmed the 250-plus Venezuelan men being disembarked and bussed to the CECOT prison, where their heads were shaved and they were forced to march, handcuffed and heads bowed, into cells. The facility is designed to hold up to 40,000 people.
The Trump administration reportedly paid nearly $6m to El Salvador to imprison the deported men.
Once inside the CECOT prison, Rengel alleges that he was struck with beaten – sometimes with batons, sometimes with bare fists – including at least one occasion where he was moved to an area where the prison had no cameras.
Earlier this month, Rengel was part of a prisoner exchange that saw all of the deported Venezuelan men released from CECOT and sent back to their home country, in exchange for the freedom of alleged political detainees and 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuela.
Rengel has since remained with his mother, 'terrified' of the prospect of returning to the US, according to his lawyers.
His complaint was made in compliance with the Federal Tort Claims Act, which sets a pathway for lawsuits against the federal government. It gives the government a maximum of six months to respond to the allegations before a suit can be filed.
Already, the Trump administration released a statement signalling it plans to fight Rengel's claims. It doubled down on its accusation that Rengel was a gang member.
'President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans,' the Department of Homeland Security told The Associated Press news agency.
'We hear far too much about gang members and criminals' false sob stories and not enough about their victims.'
The Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations has been the subject of numerous legal challenges.
US District Court Judge James Boasberg had ordered the deportation flights in March to return to the US and has since indicated that the Trump administration may be in contempt of court for failing to do so.
In June, Boasberg further ruled that the deported Venezuelan men must be given the opportunity to challenge their removals in US courts.
His decision indicated that there was 'significant evidence' that many of the men were languishing 'in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations'.
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