Photo via Thirdway
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President Donald Trump and his administration have continued throughout the past few weeks to crack down on immigration in the United States, specifically focusing on people from Latin countries. From deporting immigrants to be held in Guantanamo Bay to indefinitely pausing the United States refugee admissions program, it is evident that the administration will take whatever measures to target and reform immigration in whatever ways they deem fit. Along with these new developments, within the last week, the Trump administration revealed through government records that immigration services has been using a point system to evaluate immigrant families; one which disproportionately affects Venezuelans.
In mid March hundreds of Venezuelan Nationals were deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration under the justification that said migrants were a part of the Tren de Aragua gang. Tren de Aragua was formed in the early 2000’s in northern Venezuela, quickly growing throughout the South American continent. The widespread growth of the gang being one of the contributing factors to why Venezuelans have left the country seeking refuge. The Trump administration, under the Aliens Enemies Act—which allows subjects of an enemy nation to be deported during wartime—has placed members of Tren de Aragua under this label, deeming that they pose a threat to national security and were invading the United States. However, regular Venezuelan immigrants have been caught in the crossfire of this deportation process due to questionable means taken by immigration services to identify and deport supposed gang members.
Weeks after the migrants were deported to reside in a mega-prison in El Salvador, it was revealed through court documents that immigrants were being deported based on a system that models a scorecard with different categories ranging from tattoos to social media posts. The system is broken down into six different categories with the sections adding up to 81 points in total. The guide indicates that a score of 8 points or higher can be grounds for deportation with consultation from the department of homeland security or a legal advisor. The guidelines also push to specifically target Venezuelans over the age of 14 (including minors) who do not hold citizenship or permanent status in the United States.
The Trump administration has been caught amid a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. They filed a document in court called the “ALIEN ENEMY VALIDATION GUIDE ” which contains the guidelines for identifying Venezuela immigrants, and the score-card like checklist previously described. The ACLU, along with other experts, have asserted that the checklist criteria does not adequately or fairly establish legitimate grounds for identifying a potential gang member and limits due process for immigrants who have unfairly been targeted. The main issue with the use of tattoos as identification. The administration has created a list of popular tattoos that supposedly indicate gang membership with designs including crowns, stars, dice, trains, as well as more serious symbols like guns, gas masks, and the illuminati symbol. However, Ronna Risquez—an expert on the Tren De Aragua—argues that tattoos are not clear indicators of membership of the group. When asked about whether a tattoo can be an indicator in an interview she responded with, “To be a member of one of these Venezuelan organizations, you don’t need a tattoo…..You can have no tattoos and still be part of Tren de Aragua.”
Family members of some of the deported immigrants have maintained that the deportations have been unjustly carried out and have wrongly identified regular Venezuelans as gang members. One of the deportees, Reyes Barrios, is a soccer player who currently has a clean record. The suspected identification was his tattoo of a crown from the Real Madrid soccer team logo. Another deportee that currently remains anonymous had a tattoo of the Nike Jumpman logo, and others have been deported because of other basketball related tattoos, like Micheal Jordan’s jersey number. Bill Hing—a current law professor at the University of San Francisco— also denounced this method of identification and writes, “Jordan is popular around the world, and for many Venezuelans he’s part of their fashion.” Reiterating how a lot of people get tattoos based on pop culture, religion, interests and other aspects and this new method of identification allows too many innocent people to be falsely deported without having a fair chance to plead their case.
In response to this a federal judge paused plans that were currently held in place by the Trump administration that ended legal protections for numerous Venezuelan immigrants. Another federal judge heavily questioned a Department of Justice lawyer on why the Administration did not comply with his order to temporarily stop the deportations. Conveniently, senior Justice Department officials asserted that the planes were already in the air and outside of United States territory by the time the order was issued.
With the migrants now in El Salvador, it’s unclear if United States jurisdiction can apply to them, or whether the migrants could have a chance to return to the United States because of the new court order, despite them already being detained. However, the future remains unclear as the administration continues to reveal little information about flight logs, or the prison they remain in. Uncertainty lies in the future for these immigrants, all because of a tattoo design.
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This article was edited by Siya Patel.
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