Latest news with #Yamarte
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Yahoo
ICE deported his brother to El Salvador, so he hid in Texas, then fled back to Venezuela
Jonferson Valera Yamarte, a young Venezuelan immigrant who had made his way to the U.S. last year, hid after he witnessed in March how federal agents arrested his brother and three friends in Dallas before deporting them to a maximum security mega prison in El Salvador. Now, he is no longer in fear: His family received him with a party at their home in Venezuela. 'It's the first time I've moved away from her, and I think it's going to be the last,' said Yamarte, hugging his mother, Mercedes, just minutes after being greeted with hugs, tears and a rain of celebration foam in the neighborhood of Los Pescadores in Maracaibo, his hometown in northwestern Venezuela. Yamarte, 21, flew from Mexico to Caracas on Thursday on a plane that was part of the Venezuelan government's official repatriation plan 'Return to the Homeland' and then traveled by land to Maracaibo. He got out of a military vehicle smiling after 7 a.m. on Saturday, before his neighborhood erupted in joy. Family and friends received him with hugs, claps and tears in their eyes, while they played 'Volver a casa' — Returning Home — a melancholic song that has become the anthem of the Venezuelan migration, which so far numbers close to eight million people. Dozens of balloons the color of Venezuela's tricolor flag and a 'welcome' sign decorated the facade of his mother's house, where a breakfast of sweet breads and cola drinks awaited him. Yamarte told the Miami Herald he decided to move immediately and live in hiding somewhere else in Texas after living through the immigration agents went into his apartment, handcuffed his brother Mervin and took him into custody on March 13. 'I left there so that I wouldn't have the same address. They were going to come for me,' he said. 'I worked with fear, I went to play soccer with fear, I walked on the streets with fear, as if I were being chased.' The young man emigrated from Venezuela in September 2023 and turned himself in to border authorities in El Paso, Texas, after a long land journey in which he had crossed the dangerous Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama. His brother had entered the United States first. In November 2023, Yamarte arrived in Dallas after being detained at the border for a couple of days. He got together with Mervin and several of his friends, also former residents of Los Pescadores, to work 'honestly' in a tortilla factory, he said. After Donald Trump was elected in November 2024, Yamarte said, he and his brother had decided to return to Venezuela, worried about Trump's comments attacking immigrants during his presidential campaign, he said. But they remained in Texas, he said, thinking that nothing would happen to them. They had papers that allowed them to remain in the U.S., they both thought. Armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided his apartment in the Texas city of Irving around noon on March 13. Yamarte said he watched as his brother Mervin Yamarte, 29, and friends Andy Perozo, 30, and Ringo Rincon, 39, all from the same Maraciabo neighborhood, were handcuffed and taken away. Authorities also arrested 23-year-old Edwar Herrera, another former Los Pescadores resident who had immigrated to the U.S. The four were deported on March 16 to the notorious Terrorism Confinment Center in El Salvador, along with more than 200 immigrants accused of belonging to the feared Tren de Aragua gang. Mervin Yamarte told the ICE officers that day that he had been allowed into the U.S. and that his documentation was up to date. The officers assured him that they were detaining him 'just for investigation,' Yamarte said. Federal agents took photographs of the detainees' tattoos: Rincon had an owl and his brother had the number 99, among others. Yamarte said it was his brother's favorite soccer number. 'A tattoo doesn't define you as a person,' he says. Neither he nor his brother had had any problems with the law in the United States, he said. U.S. authorities summoned Yamarte to appear in immigration court on April 6. That day, he had already crossed into Mexico through El Paso and traveled from Ciudad Juárez to Mexico City. He thought that having remained free for a few weeks in Texas was 'a sign from God,' he says. 'Sometimes, one is very foolish because of greed and money, thinking that I was going to stay despite what was happening' to other Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S., he added. But then, when he got the notice to appear in immigration court, he said, he became convinced he would be detained and deported, perhaps to the prison in El Salvador. 'I spoke with my mother and told her that I was not going to be in the United States anymore, that I was not a criminal. Why should they be persecuting me?' he said. Yamarte said he plans to start working in Venezuela again after spending time with his family. 'I want to keep moving forward,' he added. He said his brother is innocent and remains hopeful he will be released from the Salvadoran prison and return home to Maracaibo. His mother says she is happy, in the meantime, because two of her four children who emigrated to the United States are already back living with her Los Pescadores. She hopes Mervin and another of her sons will join them soon. Said his father, Alirio, who cried as he hugged him, 'You feel joy and sadness at the same time.'
Miami Herald
11-05-2025
- Miami Herald
ICE deported his brother to El Salvador, so he hid in Texas, then fled back to Venezuela
Jonferson Valera Yamarte, a young Venezuelan immigrant who had made his way to the U.S. last year, hid after he witnessed in March how federal agents arrested his brother and three friends in Dallas before deporting them to a maximum security mega prison in El Salvador. Now, he is no longer in fear: His family received him with a party at their home in Venezuela. 'It's the first time I've moved away from her, and I think it's going to be the last,' said Yamarte, hugging his mother, Mercedes, just minutes after being greeted with hugs, tears and a rain of celebration foam in the neighborhood of Los Pescadores in Maracaibo, his hometown in northwestern Venezuela. Yamarte, 21, flew from Mexico to Caracas on Thursday on a plane that was part of the Venezuelan government's official repatriation plan 'Return to the Homeland' and then traveled by land to Maracaibo. He got out of a military vehicle smiling after 7 a.m. on Saturday, before his neighborhood erupted in joy. Family and friends received him with hugs, claps and tears in their eyes, while they played 'Volver a casa' — Returning Home — a melancholic song that has become the anthem of the Venezuelan migration, which so far numbers close to eight million people. Dozens of balloons the color of Venezuela's tricolor flag and a 'welcome' sign decorated the facade of his mother's house, where a breakfast of sweet breads and cola drinks awaited him. Living in hiding in Texas Yamarte told the Miami Herald he decided to move immediately and live in hiding somewhere else in Texas after living through the immigration agents went into his apartment, handcuffed his brother Mervin and took him into custody on March 13. 'I left there so that I wouldn't have the same address. They were going to come for me,' he said. 'I worked with fear, I went to play soccer with fear, I walked on the streets with fear, as if I were being chased.' The young man emigrated from Venezuela in September 2023 and turned himself in to border authorities in El Paso, Texas, after a long land journey in which he had crossed the dangerous Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama. His brother had entered the United States first. In November 2023, Yamarte arrived in Dallas after being detained at the border for a couple of days. He got together with Mervin and several of his friends, also former residents of Los Pescadores, to work 'honestly' in a tortilla factory, he said. After Donald Trump was elected in November 2024, Yamarte said, he and his brother had decided to return to Venezuela, worried about Trump's comments attacking immigrants during his presidential campaign, he said. But they remained in Texas, he said, thinking that nothing would happen to them. They had papers that allowed them to remain in the U.S., they both thought. Armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided his apartment in the Texas city of Irving around noon on March 13. Yamarte said he watched as his brother Mervin Yamarte, 29, and friends Andy Perozo, 30, and Ringo Rincon, 39, all from the same Maraciabo neighborhood, were handcuffed and taken away. Authorities also arrested 23-year-old Edwar Herrera, another former Los Pescadores resident who had immigrated to the U.S. The four were deported on March 16 to the notorious Terrorism Confinment Center in El Salvador, along with more than 200 immigrants accused of belonging to the feared Tren de Aragua gang. Tattoos and 'a sign from God' Mervin Yamarte told the ICE officers that day that he had been allowed into the U.S. and that his documentation was up to date. The officers assured him that they were detaining him 'just for investigation,' Yamarte said. Federal agents took photographs of the detainees' tattoos: Rincon had an owl and his brother had the number 99, among others. Yamarte said it was his brother's favorite soccer number. 'A tattoo doesn't define you as a person,' he says. Neither he nor his brother had had any problems with the law in the United States, he said. U.S. authorities summoned Yamarte to appear in immigration court on April 6. That day, he had already crossed into Mexico through El Paso and traveled from Ciudad Juárez to Mexico City. He thought that having remained free for a few weeks in Texas was 'a sign from God,' he says. 'Sometimes, one is very foolish because of greed and money, thinking that I was going to stay despite what was happening' to other Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S., he added. But then, when he got the notice to appear in immigration court, he said, he became convinced he would be detained and deported, perhaps to the prison in El Salvador. 'I spoke with my mother and told her that I was not going to be in the United States anymore, that I was not a criminal. Why should they be persecuting me?' he said. Yamarte said he plans to start working in Venezuela again after spending time with his family. 'I want to keep moving forward,' he added. He said his brother is innocent and remains hopeful he will be released from the Salvadoran prison and return home to Maracaibo. His mother says she is happy, in the meantime, because two of her four children who emigrated to the United States are already back living with her Los Pescadores. She hopes Mervin and another of her sons will join them soon. Said his father, Alirio, who cried as he hugged him, 'You feel joy and sadness at the same time.'
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'I would trade places with my son,' says mother of Venezuelan migrant held in El Salvador
Mervin Jose Yamarte Fernandez, who worked day and night at a tortilla factory in Dallas, was hoping to return to Venezuela soon to be with his six-year-old daughter, his mother Mercedes Yamarte told ABC News. But that would never happen. Yamarte Fernandez is one of the hundreds of Venezuelans who was sent last month to CECOT, the notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, by the Trump administration. "I would trade places with my son so that he wouldn't have to go through this," Yamarte said. "Honestly, I would." MORE: Federal judges block deportation of several alleged migrant gang members under AEA The Trump administration last month invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport more than 200 alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador without due process, by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States. Yamarte told ABC News Wednesday that her son is not a member of the Venezuelan gang. "My son is a hard-working boy, he likes sports, and as a mother I know that [President Donald Trump] is wrong," Yamarte said in Spanish. "We can't deny there are bad people but there are good ones. They're putting people there without a trial, without investigating if they are good or bad. The cruelest part is that the good ones are mixed with the bad ones." Yamarte said that the government of Venezuela assigned her an attorney who hasn't "been able to do anything." "We don't know what the charges are," Yamarte said. "We know nothing to this day. It's been 24 days and we still don't know what the charges are or what condition he's in." "It is hard to be unfairly accused of something," she said. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News. An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acknowledged that "many" of the men deported to El Salvador last month lack criminal records in the United States -- but said that "the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose" and "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile." Yamarte said that she saw a photo of her son in the CECOT mega-prison, which has been criticized for alleged human rights abuses. "When I saw that photo, his expression was pleading for help," Yamarte said in tears. "I feel as if my hands and feet are tied. It's cruel and it's hard." MORE: El Salvador prison holding alleged Venezuelan gang members has been criticized for alleged abuses Yamarte said that her message to Trump would be to remember the families of those involved. "He should put his hand on his heart, because he is a father and this pain we feel, not just me, but all mothers and fathers, brothers, because he has a son, and the most cherished thing for all of us is our children," Yamarte said. 'I would trade places with my son,' says mother of Venezuelan migrant held in El Salvador originally appeared on
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'I would trade places with my son,' says mother of Venezuelan migrant held in El Salvador
Mervin Jose Yamarte Fernandez, who worked day and night at a tortilla factory in Dallas, was hoping to return to Venezuela soon to be with his six-year-old daughter, his mother Mercedes Yamarte told ABC News. But that would never happen. Yamarte Fernandez is one of the hundreds of Venezuelans who was sent last month to CECOT, the notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, by the Trump administration. "I would trade places with my son so that he wouldn't have to go through this," Yamarte said. "Honestly, I would." MORE: Federal judges block deportation of several alleged migrant gang members under AEA The Trump administration last month invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport more than 200 alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador without due process, by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States. Yamarte told ABC News Wednesday that her son is not a member of the Venezuelan gang. "My son is a hard-working boy, he likes sports, and as a mother I know that [President Donald Trump] is wrong," Yamarte said in Spanish. "We can't deny there are bad people but there are good ones. They're putting people there without a trial, without investigating if they are good or bad. The cruelest part is that the good ones are mixed with the bad ones." Yamarte said that the government of Venezuela assigned her an attorney who hasn't "been able to do anything." "We don't know what the charges are," Yamarte said. "We know nothing to this day. It's been 24 days and we still don't know what the charges are or what condition he's in." "It is hard to be unfairly accused of something," she said. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News. An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acknowledged that "many" of the men deported to El Salvador last month lack criminal records in the United States -- but said that "the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose" and "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile." Yamarte said that she saw a photo of her son in the CECOT mega-prison, which has been criticized for alleged human rights abuses. "When I saw that photo, his expression was pleading for help," Yamarte said in tears. "I feel as if my hands and feet are tied. It's cruel and it's hard." MORE: El Salvador prison holding alleged Venezuelan gang members has been criticized for alleged abuses Yamarte said that her message to Trump would be to remember the families of those involved. "He should put his hand on his heart, because he is a father and this pain we feel, not just me, but all mothers and fathers, brothers, because he has a son, and the most cherished thing for all of us is our children," Yamarte said. 'I would trade places with my son,' says mother of Venezuelan migrant held in El Salvador originally appeared on
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Venezuelans watch in horror as Trump sends family to El Salvador
Mervin Yamarte's family in Venezuela thought the 29-year-old -- arrested by US authorities amid President Donald Trump's migrant crackdown -- would be put on a deportation flight home. But the plane never arrived. Instead, they learned he had been flown to El Salvador after spotting him in a video, head shaven and bowed, sitting on the floor of a maximum security prison. Yamarte was arrested last week at his home in Dallas with three friends, all of whom survived the brutal Darien jungle on their journey north in September 2023. Three days after being detained, they were deported in shackles to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has a presence in the United States. Mervin and his friends were among 238 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador under a centuries-old wartime act invoked by Donald Trump which can be used to repel an "invasion" or "predatory incursion" by an enemy country. The deportations took place despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsions order. Mervin, Andy, Ringo and Edwuar grew up in Los Pescadores, a poor neighborhood of small homes with tin roofs and dirt streets in the country's oil capital of Maracaibo. With Venezuela's economy, including its oil industry, in meltdown, the four decided to follow in the footsteps of the nearly eight million Venezuelans to have emigrated in the past decade. But life in the United States, surviving off odds jobs, was a struggle. "My son wanted to come home because he said this wasn't the American dream, it was the American nightmare," his mother Mercedes Yamarte told AFP. After their arrest, the four -- who were never charged with any crime, according to their families -- agreed to be deported to Venezuela, where their families were waiting over the weekend to welcome them home. Instead, they were flown to El Salvador, whose gang-busting President Nayib Bukele struck a deal with Trump to house alleged gang members at his showpiece mega-jail. One of Mervin's brothers recognized him in a video released by the Salvadoran presidency showing the prisoners being led in chains from a plane, having their heads shaved and sitting in rows on the floor. A sobbing Yamarte is haunted by her son's "terrified" look in the footage. "It's the greatest pain in my life, because it's like a cry for help from my son," said Yamarte, adding her two other children in the United States are now "begging" to return home but fear suffering the same fate as Mervin if they agree to be deported. - Tattoos - In Canada Honda, another impoverished Maracaibo neighborhood, Yajaira Chiquinquira Fuenmayor was also anticipating an emotional reunion with her son. After 16 months in the United States, Alirio Belloso was detained in Utah on January 28, a week after Trump returned to office vowing the biggest deportation wave in US history. He too was awaiting deportation to Venezuela but instead was transferred to El Salvador's CECOT, where prisoners are crammed in windowless cells, under 24-hour surveillance and barred from receiving visitors. In the Salvadoran propaganda video, Belloso is shown having his head shaved. Legal experts in the United States have challenged the legality of the expulsions, saying that even if courts ruled that Tren de Aragua's presence in the United States constitutes an "invasion," authorities must still prove that each detainee is a member of the gang. "My son is not a criminal; my son is a decent person. He went to the United States to work to support his family," Fuenmayor argued. Belloso's 19-year-old wife Noemi Briceno, who lives in Venezuela, wondered "was it the tattoos" that led him to be tagged a gang member. "My husband has tattoos of his niece, who died of leukemia, and (others with) the name of his daughter and his mother," Briceno said. "And an hourglass," she added, adding that it was a nod to a promise he made by his daughter to return home soon. Yamarte said that Mervin too had a tattoo on his hand, which she now sees as a call to action. It reads "strong like mum." mbj/jt/cb/des
