Gay Venezuelan stylist sent to Salvadoran prison after a disgraced cop’s report

The imprisoned man sought shelter in the U.S. after he told authorities he was persecuted as a gay man, one of the “particular social groups” allowed to claim asylum.

  • A former Milwaukee police officer with credibility issues played a key role in the deportation of a Venezuelan migrant to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.
  • Charles Cross, Jr., a CoreCivic employee, signed a report alleging the migrant’s affiliation with the Tren de Aragua gang based on his tattoos.

A disgraced former Milwaukee cop with credibility issues helped seal the fate of a gay Venezuelan makeup artist sent to El Salvador’s notorious prison, according to documents reviewed by USA TODAY. 

A report approved by the police-officer-turned-prison-contractor claimed the Venezuelan man was a member of the notorious gang Tren de Aragua. 

But the credibility of Charles Cross Jr., who signed the report, was so bad, prosecutors flagged him on a list of police who had been accused of lying, breaking the law or acting in a way that erodes their credibility to testify in Milwaukee County.

Cross was fired from his position as a Milwaukee police sergeant in 2012 after driving his car into a family’s home while intoxicated. He appealed the decision and resigned in the process, according to the department.

Earlier misdeeds had landed him on the Milwaukee County Brady List, a compilation of law enforcement officers deemed by county prosecutors to have credibility problems. 

Being on a Brady List is a kiss of death for most cops. Apparently immigration judges, ICE, and King Donald think that habitual liars are just fine.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2025/04/10/fired-milwaukee-police-officer-report-gay-stylist-salvadoran-prison/83005721007

Venezuelans sent by Trump to El Salvador had signed paperwork to go home

Families and activists say deportees signed documents to return to Venezuela but were sent to Salvadoran jail instead

Venezuelans deported from the US to El Salvador in a case that has become a legal flashpoint for Donald Trump’s US administration had signed documents agreeing to be returned to their home country, according to families of some of the deportees and a campaign group.

Two families of men on the now notorious Saturday flights to El Salvador told the Financial Times their relatives had signed what appeared to be voluntary deportation orders in exchange for returning to Venezuela sooner.

But their families later spotted them in videos posted by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele that showed them in his country in chains, claiming they were violent gang members.

Kelvi Zambrano, co-ordinator for the US-based Venezuelan non-profit Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, said his organisation represented three more Venezuelans who signed agreements to return home and were now missing. Their names all appear on a US government list of deportees sent to El Salvador that was published by CBS News.

It is not clear how many of the 238 Venezuelans flown to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador from Texas on Saturday had signed the papers to return to their home country.

So they think they’re going home to Venezuela? And instead they get de facto one-year prison sentences in a Salvadoran jail with no hearing, no due process whatsoever?

Venezuelans sent by Trump to El Salvador had signed paperwork to go home