Latest news with #AlienEnemiesAct
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Deported Venezuelan man files abuse complaint against the US government
A Venezuelan man deported from the United States has issued a complaint against the administration of President Donald Trump, saying he was wrongfully sent to a Salvadoran prison where he suffered beatings and other forms of abuse. 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'.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Convicted Murderer Released by Trump From Venezuelan Prison Is Free in U.S.
He killed three people in Spain and fled to Venezuela, where he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, court documents show. Then last week, the Trump administration negotiated his release as part of a large prisoner swap, and he arrived on American soil. Now, the convict, Dahud Hanid Ortiz, 54, a U.S. Army veteran, is free in the United States, according to two people with knowledge of the case. One said he was in Orlando, Fla. When the Americans put Mr. Hanid Ortiz on a plane on Friday back to the United States, at least some people in the Trump administration knew of his criminal past, according to third person. Mr. Hanid Ortiz was among 10 Americans and U.S. legal permanent residents extracted by the United States from detention in Venezuela on Friday. In exchange, the United States agreed to allow the release of 252 Venezuelan men it had sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration claimed all the men were members of the Tren de Aragua gang and had to be removed to protect the security of Americans. President Trump had used a wartime power, the Alien Enemies Act, to expel them. His administration provided little evidence to back its claim that they were all criminals. Mr. Hanid Ortiz's crimes and conviction had been documented in the news media and in public court records for years before his release. In 2023, officials in the Biden administration who had learned of his detention in Venezuela decided not to take him as part of a different prisoner swap, according to a former U.S. official. The official said that the Spanish authorities had asked the United States to send him to Spain, but that Spanish officials ultimately decided against this — and the Department of Justice decided it didn't want him in the United States. The decision by the Trump administration to facilitate Mr. Hanid Ortiz's release from the Venezuelan prison has elicited anger and fear among relatives of his victims — and a man court records say he had intended to kill but who, ultimately, survived. Mr. Hanid Ortiz's crimes took place in 2016 in Madrid, according to Venezuelan court documents, when he visited the office of a lawyer, Victor Salas, who he believed was having a relationship with his wife. He killed two women there, as well as a man he mistook for Mr. Salas. He fled to Germany and then to Venezuela. Spain sought the extradition of Mr. Salas, but the Venezuelan Constitution does not allow the extradition of its citizens, and he was tried instead in Venezuela. It is unclear if Mr. Hanid Ortiz can now be extradited to Spain, since he has already been tried and convicted in Venezuela and served some prison time. The Spanish prosecutor's office has confirmed Mr. Hanid Ortiz's conviction and release by the Venezuelan authorities, but declined on Thursday to comment further. Mr. Hanid Ortiz, a dual Venezuelan American citizen, served 19 years in the Army and was awarded a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq. He suffered multiple physical and mental injuries as a result of his military service, according to an Army court document, and then was forced out of the military after pleading guilty to fraud and larceny. This week, Mr. Salas said in an interview that when he heard Mr. Hanid Ortiz had been released, he immediately feared for his life. 'If this was an omission, please make amends,' he said, directing his message to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 'Because it not only endangers me, but all Americans, because they are faced with a murderer who killed three innocent people without any qualms.' José Bautista contributed reporting from Madrid, and Michael Crowley from Washington.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Deported Venezuelan imprisoned in El Salvador files formal complaint against US
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - A Venezuelan man filed a formal complaint on Thursday against the U.S. government for sending him to El Salvador's most notorious prison, a new legal strategy that could be duplicated by others who have said they were falsely accused of gang membership by President Donald Trump's administration. Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, 27, filed what it called an administrative complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, contending that federal employees wrongfully removed him from the United States without cause or due process. Rengel's complaint, which seeks $1.3 million in monetary damages, is not a lawsuit brought in a court but rather an action filed with the government alleging a violation of law. It is the first of its kind brought by one of the 252 Venezuelan men who were deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. He invoked the Federal Tort Claims Act, a U.S. law that allows people to sue the U.S. government for wrongful acts committed by federal employees acting within the scope of their employment. Under that law, a complaint must be filed with the appropriate agency before a lawsuit can be brought. The government now has six months to investigate and respond to Rengel's complaint. If it denies his claim or fails to respond in that time period, Rengel could then sue in federal court. The Republican president, who campaigned in last year's election on a pledge of mass deportations, in March invoked a 1798 statute called the Alien Enemies Act as part of an effort to quickly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. The law authorizes the president to deport, detain or place restrictions on individuals whose primary allegiance is to a foreign power and who might pose a national security risk in wartime. The U.S. government last invoked the Alien Enemies Act, which historically has been employed only during wartime, during World War Two to intern and deport people of Japanese, German and Italian descent. The Venezuelan deportees were held incommunicado in El Salvador's maximum security CECOT prison until they were returned to Venezuela last week as part of a prisoner swap between the United States and Venezuela. Family and friends of some of them said the deportees were not gang members and were wrongly accused based on tattoos, hand gestures and clothing. Venezuelan government officials and deportees have said they were tortured in prison. Rengel's lawyers said in the complaint that, because of his tattoos, DHS employees detained him in the parking lot of his apartment in Irving, Texas, and falsely accused him of membership in the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement on Thursday reiterated the U.S. government's claim that Rengel was associated with Tren de Aragua and said he was "deemed a public safety threat." McLaughlin said Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans." Rengel alleged that, after moving him to a detention center, DHS employees lied to him, telling him he was being sent to Venezuela. "Instead, 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.
The Star
5 hours ago
- Politics
- The Star
Deported Venezuelan imprisoned in El Salvador files formal complaint against US
FILE PHOTO: Venezuelan migrants who had been detained in El Salvador disembark from a plane at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, July 18, 2025. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Venezuelan man filed a formal complaint on Thursday against the U.S. government for sending him to El Salvador's most notorious prison, a new legal strategy that could be duplicated by others who have said they were falsely accused of gang membership by President Donald Trump's administration. Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, 27, filed what it called an administrative complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, contending that federal employees wrongfully removed him from the United States without cause or due process. Rengel's complaint, which seeks $1.3 million in monetary damages, is not a lawsuit brought in a court but rather an action filed with the government alleging a violation of law. It is the first of its kind brought by one of the 252 Venezuelan men who were deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. He invoked the Federal Tort Claims Act, a U.S. law that allows people to sue the U.S. government for wrongful acts committed by federal employees acting within the scope of their employment. Under that law, a complaint must be filed with the appropriate agency before a lawsuit can be brought. The government now has six months to investigate and respond to Rengel's complaint. If it denies his claim or fails to respond in that time period, Rengel could then sue in federal court. The Republican president, who campaigned in last year's election on a pledge of mass deportations, in March invoked a 1798 statute called the Alien Enemies Act as part of an effort to quickly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. The law authorizes the president to deport, detain or place restrictions on individuals whose primary allegiance is to a foreign power and who might pose a national security risk in wartime. The U.S. government last invoked the Alien Enemies Act, which historically has been employed only during wartime, during World War Two to intern and deport people of Japanese, German and Italian descent. The Venezuelan deportees were held incommunicado in El Salvador's maximum security CECOT prison until they were returned to Venezuela last week as part of a prisoner swap between the United States and Venezuela. Family and friends of some of them said the deportees were not gang members and were wrongly accused based on tattoos, hand gestures and clothing. Venezuelan government officials and deportees have said they were tortured in prison. Rengel's lawyers said in the complaint that, because of his tattoos, DHS employees detained him in the parking lot of his apartment in Irving, Texas, and falsely accused him of membership in the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement on Thursday reiterated the U.S. government's claim that Rengel was associated with Tren de Aragua and said he was "deemed a public safety threat." McLaughlin said Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans." Rengel alleged that, after moving him to a detention center, DHS employees lied to him, telling him he was being sent to Venezuela. "Instead, 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. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Amy Stevens and Will Dunham)
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Venezuelan migrant files claim over deportation to notorious CECOT prison
A Venezuelan migrant who was deported from the U.S. to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison in March filed an administrative claim Thursday over what he says was his wrongful removal from the U.S. without due process. Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel is one of more than 250 Venezuelan nationals who were released to their home country from CECOT in a prisoner swap last week after they were removed from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act. Rengel's claim, filed with the Office of the General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, came on the same day that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered a status report on the men as the judge seeks to determine if their due process rights were violated when they were removed from the U.S. MORE: Whistleblower complaint alleges top DOJ official Emil Bove said he was willing to violate court orders Rengel, who is the first of the Venezuelan former detainees to file such a claim, seeks $1.3 million in damages. "Federal officials lied to Rengel, telling him he was being sent to his country of origin, Venezuela," the claim states. "Instead, 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." In their claim, Rengel's lawyers said that Rengel entered the U.S. in 2021 after appearing for his prescheduled CBP One appointment. He was released, according to the claim, and scheduled to appear for a hearing in 2028. Rengel also applied for Temporary Protected Status in December 2024, which was still being processed when he was detained in March. "ICE detained Rengel on Thursday, March 13, 2025, on his 27th birthday, in the parking lot of his apartment in Irving, Texas," his attorneys said in the claim. "Rengel presented documentation to the agents reflecting his entry at a Port of Entry, his temporary status, and his scheduled appointment in 2028." "The agents rejected the documentation," his lawyers said. Two days after Rengel was detained and placed in a detention center, he was told that he was being deported to his home country of Venezuela, the claim said. "It was not until the plane landed that Rengel realized that he was not in Venezuela but in San Salvador -- and that ICE had lied to him about his destination," his lawyers said in the claim. According to the claim, Rengel asserts that U.S. government employees committed negligence, false arrest, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. "Rengel sustained psychological and emotional injuries, the proximate cause of which was the government's breach of its duty owed to Rengel," his lawyers said. "As a result of White House, DHS, ICE, DOJ, and State Department officials' negligent and unlawful acts, Rengel suffered a loss of his liberty, removal from the United States, and months-long detention at the notoriously inhumane CECOT, all of which has caused substantial and continuing emotional distress." In response to Rengel's claim, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Trump administration "will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans." MORE: Migrants sent to El Salvador's CECOT returned to Venezuela in prisoner swap, 10 Americans freed: Officials "Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel entered our country illegally in 2023 from Venezuela and is an associate of Tren de Aragua ... a vicious gang that rapes, maims, and murders for sport," McLaughlin said. "This illegal alien was deemed a public safety threat as a confirmed associate of the Tren de Aragua gang and processed for removal from the U.S." Judge Boasberg, during a hearing Thursday, ordered attorneys for the former detainees and the government to submit status reports on whether all the former CECOT detainees have been released from detention in Venezuela, as well as their willingness to return to the U.S. and any challenges they may want to bring on their deportation to El Salvador. Boasberg ordered the first status report by Aug. 7, with additional reports every two weeks thereafter. "My sense is that there may be some who will think it's too dangerous to come back here and risk being sent to CECOT again," Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the ACLU, told the judge. "But as Your Honor knows, the individuals that were removed under the [AEA] were taken out of immigration proceedings where they were applying for asylum." Gelernt said the ACLU has not been in contact with the deportees since their arrival in Venezuela, but said the organization intends to reach them all "immediately." MORE: Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador despite order barring removal to third countries Judge Boasberg also said he plans to follow up on the whistleblower complaint filed last month by former Justice Department official Erez Reuveni, who alleges that Trump administration officials suggested defying orders from courts in order to enforce the administration's immigration policies. The judge said Reuveni's allegations "to the extent they prove accurate, have only strengthened the case for contempt" against the administration. In March the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act -- an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process -- to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States. An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged shortly afterward that "many" of the men deported on March 15 lacked criminal records in the United States -- but said that "the lack of specific information about each individual" actually "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile." At Thursday's hearing, an attorney for the Justice Department said the government is prepared to comply with a court order to facilitate the return of the Venezuelans to the U.S. When asked by Boasberg if the government would be willing to return the Venezuelans if the Supreme Court finds the Alien Enemies Act proclamation invalid, the DOJ attorney said the CECOT deportees would have to "bring different claims." "We'd have to see what those claims look like, and I don't have an analysis on my fingertips of what that would look like absent the AEA," the DOJ lawyer said.
