Latest news with #Toczylowski
CBS News
06-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Trump administration deports gay makeup artist to prison in El Salvador
Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist who came to the United States last year in search of asylum, is one of 238 Venezuelan migrants who were flown from the U.S. to a maximum security prison in El Salvador three weeks ago. President Trump, who campaigned on eradicating the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua, brokered a deal with El Salvador's president that allows the U.S. to send deportees to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT . The Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act, a law not invoked since World War II, to send many of the Venezuelans there, claiming they were all terrorists and violent gang members. Lawyers and family members of the Venezuelan migrants told 60 Minutes they've had no contact with the men since they arrived in El Salvador. "Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared. One day he was there, and the next day we're supposed to have court, and he wasn't brought to court," Lindsay Toczylowski, Hernandez Romero's lawyer, said. Hernandez Romero left his home country last May because he was targeted for being gay and for his political views, his attorney says. He made the long trek north through the Darien Gap, a 60-mile roadless stretch of dense forest between Colombia and Panama, to Mexico, where he eventually got an appointment to seek asylum in the United States. At a legal border crossing near San Diego, he was taken into custody while his case was processed. Toczylowski said he had a strong asylum case. Hernandez Romero had what is known as a credible fear interview, the first step in the process of seeking asylum in the U.S. "And the government had found that his threats against him were credible and that he had a real probability of winning an asylum claim," Toczylowski said. But last month, Hernandez Romero did not appear for a court hearing in the U.S. Instead, he and others were taken in shackles to El Salvador. Toczylowski did not know where he was. Photos taken by Time magazine photographer Philip Holsinger show Hernandez Romero at CECOT. Holsinger said he heard a young man say, "I'm not a gang member. I'm gay. I'm a stylist." The young man cried for his mother as he was slapped and had his head shaved, Holsinger said. "It's horrifying to see someone who we've met and know as a sweet, funny artist, in the most horrible conditions I could imagine," Toczylowski said. She said she fears for her client's safety. "We have grave concerns about whether he can survive," Toczylowski said. Hernandez Romero's tattoos were also visible in the photos taken of him by Holsinger. Those tattoos — crowns — were the only evidence U.S. immigration officials presented in court to accuse him of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang. "These are tattoos that not only have a plausible explanation because he is someone who worked in the beauty pageant industry, but also the crowns themself were on top of the names of his parents," Toczylowski said. "The most plausible explanation for that is that his mom and dad are his king and queen." A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said on social media that its intelligence assessments "go well beyond just gang affiliate tattoos." She said Hernandez Romero's "own social media indicates he is a member of Tren de Aragua." 60 Minutes reviewed posts on Hernandez Romero's social media going back a decade. Posts include photos of Hernandez Romero with makeup brushes and a bejeweled crown. Toczylowski said she thinks it's unlikely that the U.S. government knows something she doesn't know about her client. "But if it was possible that they had some information, they should follow the Constitution, present that information, give us the ability to reply to it," she said. Tattoos and social media were also used to link Venezuelan migrant Jerce Reyes Barrios to the Tren de Aragua gang, government documents show. Immigration court documents include a Facebook post from 14 years ago showing him flashing what officers said was a gang sign. His girlfriend told 60 Minutes the gesture was about rock n' roll. Immigration agents also flagged Reyes Barrios' crown tattoo as a gang symbol but they did not mention the crown is above a soccer ball. Reyes Barrios was a soccer player in Venezuela. His lawyer said the tattoo honors his favorite team, Real Madrid, whose logo includes a crown. Organized crime analysts say that while members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang can often be identified by signature tattoos, Tren de Aragua is different. "Expert after expert tells us tattoos are not a reliable indicator of whether you're part of this particular gang," said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. The Trump administration has released very little information about the Venezuelan migrants sent to prison in El Salvador. But internal government documents obtained by 60 Minutes and public records indicate that an overwhelming majority have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges. The Trump administration says just because the migrants don't have criminal records does not mean they are not in a gang and are not dangerous. Border czar Tom Homan has said that immigration agents spent hours conducting rigorous checks on each of the men to confirm they are members of Tren de Aragua. But, after cross-referencing the internal documents with domestic and international court filings, news reports and arrest records, 60 Minutes could not find criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans now sitting in prison in El Salvador. The analysis did show that at least 22% of the men on the list do have criminal records in the U.S. or abroad. Most of the offenses are non-violent, such as theft, shoplifting and trespassing. About a dozen are accused of more serious crimes, including murder, rape, assault and kidnapping. For 3% of those deported, it is unclear whether a criminal record exists. In response to 60 Minutes' findings, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said many of those without criminal records "are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters, and more; they just don't have a rap sheet in the U.S." In October, Homan told 60 Minutes that the Trump administration's mass deportation plan would start by removing "the worst of the worst." "We're gonna prioritize those with convictions. We're gonna prioritize national security threats. We have to do that. You gotta get the worst first," he said at the time. While on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to expedite the removal of Tren de Aragua members from the U.S. Last month, he followed through and invoked the 1798 law, which allows the president to remove non-citizens without immigration hearings during times of war or invasion. "Every administration back to 1798 has understood this is wartime authority to be used when the United States is at war with a foreign government," Gelernt said. "The administration is saying, 'Not only are we gonna use it against a criminal organization, but you the courts have no role. You cannot tell us that we're violating the law or stop us.'" According to Gelernt, the U.S. does not have the legal right to send someone who's been deported from the country to a foreign prison. Gelernt pointed to World War II, when the U.S. government invoked the Alien Enemies Act to detain certain immigrants from Italy, Germany and Japan "We sent people back to their home country. We didn't send them to a foreign prison," he said Before the Venezuelan migrants arrived in El Salvador, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to turn the planes carrying the men around. Flight tracking data shows two planes were in the air at the time and one was about to take off from Texas. Instead of turning around, all the planes made a stop at a military base in Honduras. And then, despite Boasberg's verbal and written orders, the planes all flew to El Salvador . Since then, the U.S. government has disclosed very few details about the operation. CBS News published the only list of all 238 Venezuelan deportees . "The government is refusing to answer almost every question from the court," Gelernt said. The government invoked state secrets privilege to try to withhold more detailed information about the deportation flights from Judge Boasberg "They are saying they can't even confirm details about the planes," Gelert said. A Homeland Security spokeswoman, when asked what evidence the government has linking the men to Tren de Aragua beyond tattoos and social media posts, cited "state secrets" and "ongoing litigation" as the reasons she could not comment. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who visited CECOT last month , declined a 60 Minutes request for an interview. Gelernt is leading the ACLU legal challenge against the Trump administration's efforts to send migrants to CECOT. "If they are here illegally and don't have a right to stay, they can be deported back to their home country. If they've committed crimes, they can be prosecuted and perhaps spend many, many years in a U.S. prison," Gelernt said. "It's not a matter of, 'Can these individuals be punished?' It's a matter of how the government is gonna go about doing it. Once we start using wartime authority with no oversight, anything is possible. Anybody can be picked up." Gelernt has spent decades challenging the immigration policies of Democratic and Republican administrations. But he says he doesn't know whether the migrants sent to prison in El Salvador will ever see their families again. "There's a real danger that they remain there," he said. This past week, the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia , a 29-year-old Salvadoran man accused of being a gang member, to CECOT. He lived in Maryland with his wife and child who are American citizens. In court papers, the government called it an "administrative error," but said there is no way to get him back. On Friday, a federal judge ruled Abrego Garcia must be returned to the U.S. by Monday, April 7. The Justice Department quickly appealed the order.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker ‘disappeared' to Salvadoran mega-prison under Trump order, Maddow reveals
Rachel Maddow reported Thursday night that a young gay Venezuelan man, deported without due process under a Trump administration directive, has been identified publicly for the first time. His name is Andrys. He is 23 years old. He is a makeup artist. And he has vanished into a Salvadoran mega-prison. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. Lindsay Toczylowski, who identified the man only by his first name, Andrys, shared photos of the 23-year-old on The Rachel Maddow Show. The Advocate is not using Andrys's last name due to concerns over his safety. Toczylowski said the Trump administration forcibly removed her client from the United States without a court hearing or deportation order. She explained that her team decided to share his identity because the government had already disclosed it in an internal document. 'Names and identities of people have been shared today via a list,' she said. 'And so we know that it is inevitable that our client will be identified, and we feel it's important to let the world know who Andrys, our client, is because he is a human being. He is a young professional from Venezuela. He's a makeup artist. He is a gay man.'. Andrys had arrived in the U.S. seeking asylum, his lawyer said. He was detained after immigration officials flagged his tattoos as possible signs of gang affiliation—a claim his attorney says is unfounded. 'These are not the tattoos of somebody who is involved with gangs,' Toczylowski said. 'These are normal tattoos that you would see on anybody at a coffee shop anywhere in the United States or Venezuela.' Rachel Maddow on MSNBC According to Venezuelan independent news outlet Crónica Uno, which interviewed the young man's mother, Andrys last spoke to his family shortly before his disappearance. They believed he would be deported to Venezuela. He never arrived. Instead, he is now being held in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot—a sprawling, 40,000-capacity mega-prison used to detain suspected gang members. The Trump administration deported 238 Venezuelan men to Cecot despite a federal judge's emergency order to stop the flights on March 15. 'Today, we have confirmation from the government—one of the few groups or attorneys that have confirmation—that our client is indeed in El Salvador,' Toczylowski said. International human rights groups have condemned the prison for extreme overcrowding, systemic abuse, denial of medical care, and a communications blackout. 'There's no phone, mail or visits,' political scientist Mneesha Gellman told The Guardian. LGBTQ+ individuals are at heightened risk inside the facility, where detainees are often identified—and sometimes targeted—based on tattoos alone. Andrys was scheduled to appear in U.S. immigration court to challenge the government's allegations last week. He never appeared. 'ICE never presented him,' Toczylowski said. 'The immigration judge said, 'How is it possible that he's been removed if there's no removal order?' And the ICE attorney that was in the courtroom said, 'I don't know.'' Lindsay Toczylowski on MSNBC Toczylowski said ICE has since told her team it will not facilitate communication with Andrys or make him available for his next immigration hearing. 'They will not facilitate communication with our client, because he has, in their words, been removed,' she said. 'And they will not make him available for that hearing in two weeks.' Maddow described the case as part of 'one of the most dramatic crises of this new presidency,' and said the administration's legal argument amounts to claiming unchecked executive authority. 'Just on Trump's say-so, you're gone out of the country, disappeared indefinitely,' she said. The Advocate contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment on Friday. The agency did not immediately respond. Toczylowski warned that her client's case reflects a broader assault on due process and the right to seek asylum. 'We're pursuing all avenues,' she said. 'Because our client's life is at risk. We're concerned for his safety. And the fact that he was forcibly taken from the United States with no due process—it's just—it's something that really shocks the conscience in a way that we haven't seen since family separation happened in 2018.'
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why the men who were sent to El Salvador's mega-prison may never make it out
Hundreds of Venezuelans who were deported to El Salvador from the United States in recent days could face long or indefinite detention in a prison system rife with human rights abuses, according to attorneys and experts on the region. Their families and lawyers fear there will be no recourse for them to return to the United States for scheduled immigration hearings or even return to their native Venezuela — all while those who spoke to NBC News continue to insist their loved ones and clients have no criminal histories or gang ties. The Trump administration has said those who were sent to El Salvador had ties to the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua. 'We have no idea if there is any legal process by which we can challenge this, either in El Salvador or the United States,' said Lindsay Toczylowski, an attorney who represents a Venezuelan man in his early 30s who was seeking asylum from persecution for being gay and for his political activism against Nicolás Maduro's government. 'This is the grossest human rights violation I have seen.' She and other attorneys said they have been completely unable to reach their clients and fear they have disappeared into a prison system notorious for mass detentions, abuse and a lack of due process. Toczylowski said that her client is not a gang member and that he was deported without her knowledge, adding that days later, she was told he had been sent to El Salvador. She now fears he faces indefinite detention in "a potentially extremely dangerous situation." Toczylowski, who is the CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a law firm that works with immigrants, asked that her client not be named out of concern for his safety. He is scheduled to have a hearing next month in his ongoing immigration case to remain in the United States and has no criminal history, she said. The Trump administration over the weekend invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act from 1798, which allows the president to deport noncitizens during wartime. It announced that it had removed hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants it alleged were members of a gang, flying them from the United States to El Salvador, where they were taken to a notorious megaprison. According to the Salvadoran government, the immigrants were sent to a megaprison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, for a one-year term that is 'renewable.' The Trump administration has said it would pay El Salvador $6 million to imprison about 300 people it alleged were members of the Tren de Aragua gang for one year. The White House said in a statement Tuesday that it was 'confident in DHS intelligence assessments on these gang affiliations and criminality,' referring to the Department of Homeland Security, adding that the Venezuelan immigrants who were removed had final orders of deportation. The Trump administration has not released evidence that those sent to El Salvador have criminal histories or gang ties. Some families and attorneys strongly deny that the Venezuelan immigrants are connected to Tren de Aragua. They say their family members have been falsely accused and targeted because of their tattoos. Toczylowski said she has been unable to reach her client. She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her this week it would not facilitate communication between her and her client, nor would it facilitate his return to the United States for his ongoing asylum case. ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment about those claims and whether it was helping facilitate communication or assistance for anyone sent to El Salvador who had open immigration cases and thus did not have final orders of deportation. The exact conditions for those imprisoned in CECOT are widely unknown, as human rights groups are not permitted into it and the media is rarely granted access. Last year, CNN reported during a visit to CECOT that cells appeared built to hold roughly 80 inmates and that men were held there for 23.5 hours a day. CNN added that the cells had tiered metal bunks with no sheets, pillows or mattresses, as well as open toilets and plastic buckets for washing. Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented extreme crowding, torture and other issues at the prison and others in the country. The groups have documented years of human rights abuses in the Salvadoran prison system, as well as indefinite detention without access to due process. In recent years, President Nayib Bukele has used emergency powers to suspend certain fundamental rights and allow the arrests of tens of thousands of people suspected to be members of street gangs. More than 80,000 people have been arrested since the order. Last year, the human rights organization Cristosal reported that at least 261 people have died in Salvadoran prisons since 2022. Bukele has bragged about his country's system of mass incarceration. "World's highest incarceration rate / safest country in the Western Hemisphere It's not rocket science," he wrote on X in February 2024. Juanita Goebertus Estrada, the director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, said, 'We can very firmly say that the Salvadoran prison system is no place for migrants.' The organization, which has been doing field work in El Salvador for years, published two recent reports on prison conditions there. 'We've documented cases of torture, of ill treatment, of malnutrition, of lack of access to medical services,' she said. 'We have documented very severe cases of restriction to due process. In CECOT in particular, people that have gone in have not come out.' Bukele and his administration have promised to make sure anyone who enters CECOT would never return to their communities. The experts and lawyers say they are gravely concerned that the immigrants will be denied due process, both in terms of how they were removed from the United States and in their ongoing immigration cases in the United States, and about their fates as they remain in El Salvador. Ana María Méndez Dardón, the director for Central America at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that 'the judiciary system in El Salvador has collapsed' and that it lacks the independence to even properly deal with the issues facing the country's own citizens, let alone due process concerns for the Venezuelan immigrants recently sent to El Salvador. 'For Bukele, justice means just mass incarceration,' she said. Goebertus said that because there was no judicial independence in the country and because of the state of emergency, 'these people have no recourse in El Salvador.' Martin Rosenow, an immigration attorney in Miami, said he believes that a Venezuelan asylum-seeker he represents was quietly removed from the United States and is now most likely in the Salvadoran prison system. 'We have not been able to find him anywhere. All signs indicate that he's there at the CECOT prison. We have no access to him, and we don't know what's going on,' he said. Franco Jose Caraballo Tiapa, 26, a barber and father of two, was in the United States seeking asylum because of political persecution and has no criminal history, Rosenow said. Caraballo Tiapa had been released into the United States with his wife before he was detained after an immigration appointment in February. Then, on Friday night, he called his wife crying and desperate, saying he was going to be deported, Rosenow said. Rosenow said Caraballo Tiapa's name disappeared from the list of ICE detainees, which would happen only if his client was released from detention or deported. The Trump administration has yet to tell Rosenow where his client is or the circumstances around what happened to him. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Caraballo Tiapa's case and whether he was deported and sent to El Salvador. 'My hope rests exclusively on our judicial power to have the enforcement arm of bringing these people back — and I don't even know if that's possible,' Rosenow said. This article was originally published on
NBC News
20-03-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Why experts fear the men who were sent to El Salvador's megaprison may never make it out
Hundreds of Venezuelans who were deported to El Salvador from the United States in recent days could face long or indefinite detention in a prison system rife with human rights abuses, according to attorneys and experts on the region. Their families and lawyers fear there will be no recourse for them to return to the United States for scheduled immigration hearings or even return to their native Venezuela — all while those who spoke to NBC News continue to insist their loved ones and clients have no criminal histories or gang ties. The Trump administration has said those who were sent to El Salvador had ties to the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua. 'We have no idea if there is any legal process by which we can challenge this, either in El Salvador or the United States,' said Lindsay Toczylowski, an attorney who represents a Venezuelan man in his early 30s who was seeking asylum from persecution for being gay and for his political activism against Nicolás Maduro's government. 'This is the grossest human rights violation I have seen.' She and other attorneys said they have been completely unable to reach their clients and fear they have disappeared into a prison system notorious for mass detentions, abuse and a lack of due process. Toczylowski said that her client is not a gang member and that he was deported without her knowledge, adding that days later, she was told he had been sent to El Salvador. She now fears he faces indefinite detention in "a potentially extremely dangerous situation." Toczylowski, who is the CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a law firm that works with immigrants, asked that her client not be named out of concern for his safety. He is scheduled to have a hearing next month in his ongoing immigration case to remain in the United States and has no criminal history, she said. The Trump administration over the weekend invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act from 1798, which allows the president to deport noncitizens during wartime. It announced that it had removed hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants it alleged were members of a gang, flying them from the United States to El Salvador, where they were taken to a notorious megaprison. According to the Salvadoran government, the immigrants were sent to a megaprison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, for a one-year term that is 'renewable.' The Trump administration has said it would pay El Salvador $6 million to imprison about 300 people it alleged were members of the Tren de Aragua gang for one year. The White House said in a statement Tuesday that it was 'confident in DHS intelligence assessments on these gang affiliations and criminality,' referring to the Department of Homeland Security, adding that the Venezuelan immigrants who were removed had final orders of deportation. The Trump administration has not released evidence that those sent to El Salvador have criminal histories or gang ties. Some families and attorneys strongly deny that the Venezuelan immigrants are connected to Tren de Aragua. They say their family members have been falsely accused and targeted because of their tattoos. Toczylowski said she has been unable to reach her client. She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her this week it would not facilitate communication between her and her client, nor would it facilitate his return to the United States for his ongoing asylum case. ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment about those claims and whether it was helping facilitate communication or assistance for anyone sent to El Salvador who had open immigration cases and thus did not have final orders of deportation. The exact conditions for those imprisoned in CECOT are widely unknown, as human rights groups are not permitted into it and the media is rarely granted access. Last year, CNN reported during a visit to CECOT that cells appeared built to hold roughly 80 inmates and that men were held there for 23.5 hours a day. CNN added that the cells had tiered metal bunks with no sheets, pillows or mattresses, as well as open toilets and plastic buckets for washing. Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented extreme crowding, torture and other issues at the prison and others in the country. The groups have documented years of human rights abuses in the Salvadoran prison system, as well as indefinite detention without access to due process. In recent years, President Nayib Bukele has used emergency powers to suspend certain fundamental rights and allow the arrests of tens of thousands of people suspected to be members of street gangs. More than 80,000 people have been arrested since the order. Last year, the human rights organization Cristosal reported that at least 261 people have died in Salvadoran prisons since 2022. Bukele has bragged about his country's system of mass incarceration. "World's highest incarceration rate / safest country in the Western Hemisphere It's not rocket science," he wrote on X in February 2024. Juanita Goebertus Estrada, the director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, said, 'We can very firmly say that the Salvadoran prison system is no place for migrants.' The organization, which has been doing field work in El Salvador for years, published two recent reports on prison conditions there. 'We've documented cases of torture, of ill treatment, of malnutrition, of lack of access to medical services,' she said. 'We have documented very severe cases of restriction to due process. In CECOT in particular, people that have gone in have not come out.' Bukele and his administration have promised to make sure anyone who enters CECOT would never return to their communities. The experts and lawyers say they are gravely concerned that the immigrants will be denied due process, both in terms of how they were removed from the United States and in their ongoing immigration cases in the United States, and about their fates as they remain in El Salvador. Ana María Méndez Dardón, the director for Central America at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that 'the judiciary system in El Salvador has collapsed' and that it lacks the independence to even properly deal with the issues facing the country's own citizens, let alone due process concerns for the Venezuelan immigrants recently sent to El Salvador. 'For Bukele, justice means just mass incarceration,' she said. Goebertus said that because there was no judicial independence in the country and because of the state of emergency, 'these people have no recourse in El Salvador.' Martin Rosenow, an immigration attorney in Miami, said he believes that a Venezuelan asylum-seeker he represents was quietly removed from the United States and is now most likely in the Salvadoran prison system. 'We have not been able to find him anywhere. All signs indicate that he's there at the CECOT prison. We have no access to him, and we don't know what's going on,' he said. Franco Jose Caraballo Tiapa, 26, a barber and father of two, was in the United States seeking asylum because of political persecution and has no criminal history, Rosenow said. Caraballo Tiapa had been released into the United States with his wife before he was detained after an immigration appointment in February. Then, on Friday night, he called his wife crying and desperate, saying he was going to be deported, Rosenow said. Rosenow said Caraballo Tiapa's name disappeared from the list of ICE detainees, which would happen only if his client was released from detention or deported. The Trump administration has yet to tell Rosenow where his client is or the circumstances around what happened to him. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Caraballo Tiapa's case and whether he was deported and sent to El Salvador. 'My hope rests exclusively on our judicial power to have the enforcement arm of bringing these people back — and I don't even know if that's possible,' Rosenow said.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
LGBTQ+ Venezuelan deported and 'disappeared' over mischaracterized tattoos, lawyer says
An LGBTQ+ Venezuelan seeking asylum in the U.S. was deported and 'disappeared' after immigration officials reportedly misinterpreted his tattoos as symbols for the violent Tren de Aragua gang, a person from the man's legal team posted to X. 'Our client worked in the arts in Venezuela. He is LGBTQ. His tattoos are benign,' Lindsay Toczylowski, the president, CEO, and co-founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, posted to X on Friday. 'But ICE submitted photos of his tattoos as evidence he is Tren de Aragua. His attorney planned to present evidence he is not. But never got the chance because our client has been disappeared.' The lawyer used the term "disappeared" which is synonymous with what the UN calls 'enforced disappearance.' The body defines that as "the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law." The unnamed Venezuelan asylum-seeker arrived in the country last year, but was reportedly detained upon entry by immigration officials who saw the man's tattoos as signifying his affiliation with the Venezuelan crime group. Toczylowski said their client was due for a court appearance on Thursday. Officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not bring the asylum-seeker to the hearing, however, and provided no details about why their client was not made available. The judge rescheduled the hearing for Monday while attorneys attempted to locate the missing man. By Monday, the man was again not made available for his court appearance, and his name no longer appeared in the online system for locating detainees. Toczylowski posted she fears the worst for the man. 'Our client came to the US seeking protection but has spent months in ICE prisons, been falsely accused of being a gang member and today he has been forcibly transferred, we believe, to El Salvador,' Toczylowski reported. 'We are horrified tonight thinking what might happen to him now.' The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, part of the broader Alien and Sedition Acts, gives the president broad powers to deport non-citizens in the country under certain conditions. 'Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government, and the President of the United States shall make public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies,' the text of the act reads. In his executive order announcing the use of the Alien Enemies Act, Pres. Trump declared that the criteria existed for him to act. The act has been used only three previous times in U.S. history: during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. More than 30,000 people were interned in camps during World War II over the act. 'I find and declare that TdA is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States,' Trump declared in the executive order. 'TdA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela. I make these findings using the full extent of my authority to conduct the Nation's foreign affairs under the Constitution.' Trump's deportation orders hit a snag when U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg tried to halt the deportations and order planes already in flight to turn around. Since the planes were over international waters, however, Trump noted the judge no longer had jurisdiction, and the planes did not turn around. Additionally, Trump is disputing that the case is justiciable, claiming the president has plenary powers over national security, and the act gives the president broad authority in such matters. As a result, the administration has refused to provide additional information to the courts regarding the case and others, claiming the judge has stepped outside the powers granted to the courts under Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Regardless of the outcome of the case, Toczylowski lamented the current situation for immigrants and asylum seekers. 'What happened today is a dark moment in our history,' Toczylowki wrote. 'One bright spot in this madness that I see are the many lawyers and advocates across the country who spent their Saturday fighting like hell to preserve justice in the face of horrific cruelty. And we will keep fighting.'
