Alleged Tren de Aragua gangbangers in ICE detention hold up sign, beg to be deported
Dozens of desperate alleged Tren de Aragua gangbangers begged to be sent home, flashing a banner reading “Help, we want to be deported. We are not terrorists. SOS” to a drone flying over a prison yard in Texas this week.
The jumpsuit-clad migrants were seen standing in a “SOS” while holding a sign in the colors of the Venezuelan flag at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bluebonnet detention center in Anson, Texas.
Just weeks earlier, a group of Venezuelan detainees were spotted by a Reuters drone getting into the “SOS” formation at the same detention center.
Prior to the request for help, they were seen waving, socializing and playing soccer.
The Trump administration said all the men involved are suspected Tren de Aragua members.
They were previously due to be deported to El Salvador’s hellhole CECOT prison, but that was halted when the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s effort to use the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to kick them out of the country without a hearing.
In the earlier drone footage, Venezuelan migrants Diover Millan, 24, and Jeferson Daniel Escalona Hernandez, 19, both of whom the feds said are , were seen in the detention facility yard.
ICE agents nabbed Escalona Hernandez in January after he was arrested in Texas for evading arrest in a vehicle, according to Reuters. He ended up at the Bluebonnet facility after he was moved from Guantanamo Bay, where the Trump administration opened a detention center for migrants.
Escalona Hernandez had “self admitted” to being a Tren de Aragua member, according to DHS.
The Venezuelan migrant denied having any ties to gangs, including Tren de Aragua, in a phone interview with Reuters from detention. He also claimed that he volunteered to get deported to his home country, but wasn’t allowed to do so.
He said it was likely the feds linked him to the gang because of photos showing him making hand signals commonly seen in Venezuela that they likely saw after searching his phone.
“They’re making false accusations about me,” he said. “I don’t belong to any gang.”
“I fear for my life here,” he said. “I want to go to Venezuela.”
Millan was also tagged as a Tren de Aragua member, after he was released into the US by the Biden administration and later collared by ICE, according to DHS.
