WASHINGTON (AP) — A Venezuelan migrant who was deported by the U.S. government to El Salvador has taken the first step toward suing the United States government, and he says he was sent in error to a notorious prison in that Central American country, where guards beat him and he was prevented from contacting his family or a lawyer.
Neiyerver Adrián León Rengel, 27, filed a $1.3 million claim with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, his lawyers from the Democracy Defenders Fund said on Thursday. Rengel is one of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants who were sent to El Salvador in March, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, after President Donald Trump invoked the Foreign Enemies Act of 1798 against members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Immigration agents detained Rengel on March 13 in the parking lot of his apartment in Irving, Texas, and allegedly incorrectly claimed that his tattoos reflected an affiliation with the Tren de Aragua gang, according to the complaint. He had entered the United States in 2023. He worked as a barber and was scheduled to appear before an immigration judge in 2028.
The Department of Homeland Security said in an email that Rengel was a “confirmed associate” of the Tren de Aragua gang, though it did not specify how it reached that conclusion, and said that his claims were a false “sad story.” It also noted that he had entered the country illegally.
“President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans,” the email states, mentioning the secretary of Homeland Security. “We hear too much about the false sad stories of gang members and criminals and not enough about their victims,” the email adds.
At the El Salvador Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, Rengel said guards beat him with fists and batons and, at one point, brutally beat him after taking him to a camera-less area of the prison.
Rengel was sent to Venezuela a few days ago as part of a prisoner exchange agreement. His lawyers say he’s living with his mother and is “terrorized” about returning to the United States.
They are seeking compensation for emotional and psychological injuries.
Andri Hernández, another migrant released from the megaprison CECOT, reported having been subjected to sexual abuse during his confinement in El Salvador (see the video above with his statements).
In June, a U.S. federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must give some of the migrants sent to the prison in El Salvador the opportunity to challenge their deportations.
Federal District Judge James Boasberg said that the individuals had not been able to formally challenge their deportations or the allegations that they were members of the Tren de Aragua. He ordered the federal government to work to provide them a way to file those challenges.
The judge wrote that there had emerged “significant evidence” indicating that many of the migrants were not tied to the gang—and, therefore, were languishing in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, charges.
At a Thursday hearing, a federal government attorney told Boasberg that he would not immediately bring back the migrants sent from El Salvador to Venezuela as part of the prisoner exchange back to the United States.
Government officials planned to wait for the outcome of other court cases to decide whether to allow the migrants to return, said Justice Department attorney Tiberius Davis.
Boasberg had ordered the federal government to bring back the planes carrying the alleged gang members, but the order was ignored. Rengel’s lawyers noted that he was aboard one of those planes.
The judge has found probable cause that the government committed contempt of court.
The judge noted Thursday that he planned to expand his contempt investigation to include a recent complaint by an informant who alleges that a high-ranking Department of Justice official suggested that the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders while it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members.
