CNN
—
Yurliana Andreina Chacin Gómez gripped her cellphone, her three-year old daughter clinging on, as the voice of a federal official boomed through the phone.
“He’s been removed,” the official confirmed, as Chacin Gómez – with CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez translating – asked about the whereabouts of her brother, a Venezuelan national who’s been in US custody. And then, the answer she had been desperate for.
Her brother, Jhon Willian Chacin Gómez, had been sent to El Salvador.
Overcome with grief, Chacin Gómez collapsed on the couch with her family.
For four days, Chacin Gómez had been searching for her brother after spotting him in a handout video from the El Salvadoran government as among those sent to El Salvador from the United States, accused by the Trump administration of having ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
“He’s not a criminal,” she cried in Spanish.
Chacin Gómez’s story is, in many ways, consistent with those of multiple family members and immigration attorneys who spoke with CNN – Venezuelan migrants detained in the US, suddenly disappearing from the US federal system, and leaving families and attorneys scrambling to find them.
CNN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for a list of those moved to El Salvador and requested comment from Immigration and Customs Enforcement multiple times in the case of Chacin Gómez’s brother. CNN also asked ICE for information about the cases of other deportees in this story, and reached out to agencies in Venezuela and El Salvador to seek out details about them.
The deportations stem from President Donald Trump’s invocation of a sweeping wartime authority that paved the way for the swift removal of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador, which has agreed to take migrants from the United States. The administration said 137 of those immigrants were deported pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act.
Despite the high-level accusations levied by the Trump administration that the deportees were affiliated with Tren de Aragua, it has not provided evidence on a case-by-case level, and CNN has not been able to confirm whether any of the deported migrants identified in this story have any affiliation to the gang.
“I’ve been representing people in immigration court for 15 years and my organization represents thousands of people every year. This is the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen happen to one of our clients,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder and president of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, who is representing a different Venezuelan asylum seeker they say was abruptly removed to El Salvador over the weekend.
The Alien Enemies Act, an obscure 18th-century law, has only been invoked three times in US history, all during major military conflicts. Detentions and deportations that occur under the measure do not go through the immigration court system, which provides immigrants the chance to seek relief and make their case to stay in the country.
Now that they’re in El Salvador, it’s unclear what legal recourse, if any, those migrants have—they are no longer in US custody, nor in their origin country. US officials say it will ultimately be up to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele what happens to them next.
Bukele said the migrant arrivals, who the Trump administration has accused of having ties to Tren de Aragua, will remain “for a period of one year” in the Center for Terrorism Confinement. Known as Cecot, it’s the largest prison in the Americas and is infamous for its harsh conditions. (In response to a CNN inquiry, the Salvadoran government said it respects the human rights of those in custody “without distinction of nationality” and insisted that its prison system meets standards of safety and order.)
During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly teased invoking the 1798 law, saying in October that he wanted to use the measure because “it gives tremendous authority to everybody to straighten out our country.”
Trump has often cited Tren de Aragua, which began as a prison gang in Venezuela. Much of their criminal enterprise has been focused “on human smuggling and other illicit acts that target desperate migrants,” according to the US Treasury Department. The full scale of its operations is unknown. The Trump administration has acknowledged in court documents that many of the deportees it accuses of being Tren de Aragua members don’t have criminal records in the US.
The US recently designated Tren de Aragua, among other gangs and drug cartels, as a foreign terrorist organization, paving the way to tougher financial penalties and legal ramifications in the US against those involved. That designation also served as a basis for invoking the Alien Enemies Act, as US officials have claimed that the country is under “invasion” by the gang at the direction of a foreign government, Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has decried what he called the “kidnapping” of Venezuelan migrants who were sent to El Salvador and denied that the migrants were criminals.
Jhon Willian Chacin Gómez, a tattoo artist from Venezuela, crossed into the United States with his sister, Yurliana, last year. While Yurliana was able to stay in the US with her daughter to pursue her asylum claim, Jhon Willian was returned to Mexico, she says. He later requested an appointment through the CBP One app, which allowed migrants to set up appointments to legally enter the United States to request asylum.
He arrived for that appointment at the California-Mexico border last October and was detained. While in detention, Jhon Willian tried to find a legal pathway to remain in the United States, but his sister says he was denied.
The two of them jumped on phone calls and video calls daily, sometimes multiple times a day, to connect. “When I saw him on video calls, I would see his innocence,” she said. “He would say, ‘I’ll wait as long as I have to here until we can reunite.’”
While in detention, her brother had also shared that ICE was investigating him because of his tattoos and asked whether he was associated with Tren de Aragua, which he denied. He welcomed the investigation, Yurliana said, and later told his sister that ICE had confirmed that he was not associated with the gang.
In early March, Jhon Willian was transferred to Texas, without explanation. By then, his sister says, he had started to become more anxious, hoping to either be released or returned to Venezuela. Last Friday, in the last call between the two of them, Jhon Willian shared that there had been movements at the facility where he was being held with other Venezuelans, and he believed his deportation to be imminent.
She never heard from him after that. His name disappeared from the ICE locator and the apps she had used to communicate with him while in detention.
On Sunday, Yurliana learned that flights had arrived in El Salvador. “I began to feel suspicious because there wasn’t news of any other planes arriving elsewhere,” she said.
A day later, while furiously texting with family to try to locate her brother, the news played in the background on her television. As she watched videos of migrants arriving in El Salvador pop up on her screen, she spotted who she believed to be her brother. The images were blurry, but she could identify his tattoos, glasses and recognized his posture.
“It was emotional,” she said. “I don’t know if he’s okay, if he’s eating, how he’s sleeping. He must be nervous and scared.”
Four days later, she received confirmation from DHS that he had been sent to El Salvador. Her only way of getting in touch with him now—by going through channels in El Salvador.
“He knows how much I love him. He’s my other half,” she said. “My heart is broken.”
Also among those believed to be detained in El Salvador is Arturo Suarez Trejo, an up-and-coming Venezuelan singer.
Known by his stage name, SuarezVzla, Arturo is known for singing peaceful ballads and love songs. Arturo had been living with his pregnant wife in Chile, where he launched his career as an artist, according to his family. In September, he decided to migrate to the United States to advance that career and learn English, his brother Nelson told CNN. After setting up an appointment at a border entry point, he was allowed to enter the US while he completed a political asylum application, Nelson said.
“My brother has no criminal records in Venezuela, Chile or even a traffic violation in the US,” Nelson said, sharing documents from the civil registry of Chile, the Venezuelan interior ministry and Colombia’s national police, which he says show Arturo has a clean record. CNN has reached out to all three agencies for comment.
Nelson said ICE detained Arturo and his manager during the filming of scenes for a music video in North Carolina on February 8, just days before he was scheduled to submit his fingerprints as part of his asylum application. Nelson noted that this brother has tattoos, though he says they’re not related to the Tren de Aragua gang.
CNN has contacted ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for details on his detention.
Arturo was later transferred to Georgia, where he was awaiting an immigration hearing to determine his status. Court records show his initial hearing was scheduled for April 2.
His family said they requested that he be released on bond but were told that it wasn’t an option because he hadn’t committed a crime. They also asked if he could leave the US voluntarily but did not receive a response, Nelson said. CNN has requested more information from ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
On Friday, the last time the brothers spoke, Arturo said he was told that authorities would repatriate him to Venezuela, an update that thrilled his family, Nelson said.
To their shock, Arturo was apparently flown to El Salvador instead. His relatives say they found out only after the Salvadoran government posted photos of the deportees in prison on Sunday.
The family recognized Arturo in one of those pictures by his tattoos. One drawing inked on the left side of his neck shows a hummingbird. Another on his left leg depicts two faces leaning in for a kiss. The tattoos in the prison picture are similar to those in social media photos of Arturo that his brother and wife have shared.
CNN has asked the Salvadorian government if it can confirm Arturo is being detained in Cecot but has not received a response.
“My brother has tattoos because he’s an artist but that doesn’t make him a criminal,” Nelson said. “I’ve never seen him argue or be aggressive. He’s a person who’s beyond calm.”
Detainees were abruptly moved from different parts of the United States to Texas days before their removal flights, according to relatives and attorneys who spoke with CNN.
Toczylowski’s client arrived in the United States last year through the CBP One app. The client, who Toczylowski didn’t name over concerns for his safety, was detained in California while he sought asylum on the basis of political persecution. He was moved to Texas in early March.
Last Thursday, he was expected to appear virtually for his immigration hearing from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, but he wasn’t there. The ICE prosecutor didn’t have information, according to Toczylowski, and the judge rescheduled the hearing to Monday.
His absence set off a race to collect information on his whereabouts, but his attorneys couldn’t find him in the US immigration detention system. DHS had previously filed pictures of his tattoos, alleging – as they have in other cases – that they were evidence he had ties to Tren de Aragua, adding to the alarm among his attorneys that he could be subject to the wartime authority. Toczylowski’s client denied that was the case.
“We start hearing about the three planes (over the weekend),” Toczylowski said. “We were just watching, knowing that our client was likely on one of those flights.”
On Monday, ICE confirmed in immigration court that Toczylowski’s client had been among those sent to El Salvador – despite his ongoing asylum proceedings in the United States.
“He came here seeking protection, seeking asylum and because of his tattoos which are the type of tattoos you would see on any person hanging out in a coffee shop in (Los Angeles). Because of those tattoos he’s in a labor prison in El Salvador known for human rights abuse,” Toczylowski said.
The removal of migrants to El Salvador “should be putting a chill down the spine of everyone,” she added.
The administration has not publicly identified those removed on Saturday’s flights to El Salvador. CNN previously reported that more than half of the 261 migrants expelled to El Salvador were done under the Alien Enemies Act.
“We are not going to reveal operational details about a counter terrorism operation, but what I can assure you, as I said on Monday, we have the highest degree of confidence in our ICE agents and our Customs and Border Patrol agents who have committed their lives to targeting illegal criminals in our country, particularly foreign terrorists,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday.
“They had great evidence and indication. They have the highest degree of professionalism, and they were 100 percent confident in the individuals that were sent home on these flights and in the president’s executive authority to do that,” she added.
The administration has similarly argued in court that they thoroughly vetted the migrants selected to be sent to El Salvador, arguing that they were “carefully vetted” through investigative techniques and a review of information to ensure they were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to a court declaration submitted this week from an agency official.
Robert Cerna, acting field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, argued that the agency “did not simply rely on social media posts, photographs of the alien displaying gang-related hand gestures, or tattoos alone,” instead using multiple methods to make determinations.
“Members of TdA pose an extraordinary threat to the American public. TdA members are involved in illicit activity to invoke fear and supremacy in neighborhoods and with the general population,” the filing states.
Cerna noted that many of the TdA members did not have criminal records in the United States.
“However, even though many of these TdA members have been in the United States only a short time, some have still managed to commit extremely serious crimes,” Cerna said, listing multiple charges and convictions against some of those removed.
Another presumed detainee is Venezuelan national Francisco García Cacique. His mother, Mirelys Cacique, said on CNN en Español that she also recognized him in one of the photos of the inmates.
She said he was photographed from above as he was sitting next to other prisoners on the ground with his head down. Although his face was not visible, she’s “100% certain” it’s him based on his physical features, including his own distinctive tattoos.
“I know his physiognomy, his body, his neck, his ears, and, indeed, he is my son,” Mirelys said.
CNN has not been able to independently confirm that Francisco García is the person in the image. CNN has contacted the US Department of Homeland Security and the Salvadoran Presidential Communications Secretariat to verify if García was among those deported this weekend but has not yet received a response.
García’s family denies that he’s affiliated with a gang. They claim he’s simply a migrant who entered the United States in 2023 and worked as a barber in Texas until his arrest in February. His mother acknowledged that her son was ordered to be deported after a judge issued a removal order in absentia when he failed to appear for a hearing.
The wife of another presumed detainee, Mervin José Yamarte Fernández, shared a similar story on CNN en Español.
Jaannelys Parra Morillo said her brother-in-law recognized her husband in one of the prison photos El Salvador published. She said he also has tattoos but insists he has no criminal record or ties to any criminal group.
CNN cannot independently confirm that Yamarte Fernández is among those detained in El Salvador and the Venezuelan government has not responded to inquiries on the matter, but Parra says there’s no doubt it’s him.
“I’m sure about my husband. I know him well. I’ve been with him for 11 years. I know he’s not a bad guy,” she said. “He’s not a member of Tren de Aragua. He doesn’t like bad things. He likes soccer, he likes to work.”
CNN’s Avery Schmitz and Max Saltman and CNNE’s Mauricio Torres and Osmary Hernández contributed to this report.
