Tag Archives: Nicolas Maduro

Alternet: Busted: Major investigation catches Trump administration in a massive lie

Posted on by
Reply

The Trump administration knew that the vast majority of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in mid-March had not been convicted of crimes in the United States before it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data that has not been previously reported.’

President Donald Trump and his aides have branded the Venezuelans as “rapists,” “savages,” “monsters” and “the worst of the worst.” When multiple news organizations disputed those assertions with reporting that showed many of the deportees did not have criminal records, the administration doubled down. It said that its assessment of the deportees was based on a thorough vetting process that included looking at crimes committed both inside and outside the United States. But the government’s own data, which was obtained by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a team of journalists from Venezuela, showed that officials knew that only 32 of the deportees had been convicted of U.S. crimes and that most were nonviolent offenses, such as retail theft or traffic violations.

The data indicates that the government knew that only six of the immigrants were convicted of violent crimes: four for assault, one for kidnapping and one for a weapons offense. And it shows that officials were aware that more than half, or 130, of the deportees were not labeled as having any criminal convictions or pending charges; they were labeled as only having violated immigration laws.

As for foreign offenses, our own review of court and police records from around the United States and in Latin American countries where the deportees had lived found evidence of arrests or convictions for 20 of the 238 men. Of those, 11 involved violent crimes such as armed robbery, assault or murder, including one man who the Chilean government had asked the U.S. to extradite to face kidnapping and drug charges there. Another four had been accused of illegal gun possession.

Busted: Major investigation catches Trump administration in a massive lie

https://www.alternet.org/venezuelan-deportees

Independent: Venezuelans ‘barricaded’ doors and ‘threatened to take hostages’ in ICE detention, Trump team alleges

Posted on by
Reply

Administration calls on Supreme Court for permission to swiftly deport nearly 200 immigrants detained in Texas

In its latest demand to the Supreme Court to begin swiftly deporting immigrants from the United States, Donald Trump’s administration claims a group of Venezuelan men imprisoned in Texas tried to barricade themselves inside their unit, covered surveillance cameras and threatened to take hostages.

A group of 23 men the administration accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members “have proven difficult to manage,” according to a sworn statement in court documents from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

In an incident on April 23 that has not previously been reported, the men allegedly “refused their breakfast trays and barricaded both the front and rear entrance doors of their housing unit using bed cots” and “covered the surveillance cameras and blocked the housing unit windows.”

They “threatened to take hostages and injure facility contract staff and ICE officers” and “attempted to flood the housing unit by clogging toilets,” according to Joshua D. Johnson, acting ICE director for the Dallas office.

Can you blame them for trying to avoid an illegal deportation to a prison in a third country? They wanted to be deported (legally!) to their home country:

Another image captures a group holding up a sign that reads, in Spanish, “Help, we want to be deported. We are not terrorists.” The sign says “VZLA,” a reference to Venezuela, and suggests they are pleading with authorities to avoid their imprisonment in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, labeled by human rights groups as a “tropical gulag” and concentration camp.

Venezuelans ‘threatened to take hostages’ in ICE detention, Trump team alleges
Administration calls on Supreme Court for permission to swiftly deport nearly 200 immigrants detained in Texas

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-administration-supreme-court-alien-enemies-act-b2750299.html

New York Times: A Venezuelan Is Missing. The U.S. Deported Him. But to Where?

Posted on by
Reply

The immigrant does not appear on a list of people sent to a prison in El Salvador, and his family and friends have no idea of his whereabouts. He has essentially disappeared.

Ricardo Prada Vásquez, disappeared Venezuelan immigrant

In late January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan immigrant working in a delivery job in Detroit, picked up an order at a McDonald’s. He was heading to the address when he erroneously turned onto the Ambassador Bridge, which leads to Canada. It is a common mistake even for those who live in the Michigan border city. But for Mr. Prada, 32, it proved fateful.

The U.S. authorities took Mr. Prada into custody when he attempted to re-enter the country; he was put in detention and ordered deported. On March 15, he told a friend in Chicago that he was among a number of detainees housed in Texas who expected to be repatriated to Venezuela.

That evening, the Trump administration flew three planes carrying Venezuelan migrants from the Texas facility to El Salvador, where they have been ever since, locked up in a maximum-security prison and denied contact with the outside world.

But Mr. Prada has not been heard from or seen. He is not on the list of 238 people who were deported to El Salvador that day. He does not appear in the photos and videos released by the authorities of shackled men with shaved heads.

https://archive.is/5WSq8

Miami Herald: Once a champion for Venezuelans, Rubio endorses Trump decision to end Venezuela TPS

Posted on by
Reply

“Designating Venezuela under TPS does not champion core American interests or put America and American citizens first. Therefore, it is contrary to the foreign policy and the national interest of the United States,” Rubio wrote in a Jan. 31 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Where do these ignorant fools come from? It has nothing to do with putting America and American citizens first, second, third, or whatever. We are obligated under the 1967 Protocol regarding refugees to accept and assist refugees regardless of their temporal or geographic situation. TPS simply provided a framework to handle our existing treaty obligations more efficiently.

Once a champion for Venezuelans, Rubio endorses Trump decision to end Venezuela TPS
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, once a stalwart champion of Venezuelan immigrants, supports President Donald Trump’s decision to end the deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of people already in the United States who fled dictatorship and humanitarian crises in their home country.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/once-champion-venezuelans-rubio-endorses-220038340.html

Alternet: ‘Caught in limbo’: Decorated Iraq War veteran now target of Trump deportations

Posted on by
Reply

What a wonderful way to that a veteran for his service to our country! Not!

A man who served in the U.S. military and survived two combat deployments to Iraq is now at risk of being deported to a country that is refusing to accept him.

Rolling Stone columnist Michael Embrich wrote Wednesday about the case of Army veteran Jose Barco, who is now in deportation proceedings even though he’s an honorably discharged Purple Heart recipient diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. According to Embrich, Barco is “caught in limbo” as he faces deportation to Venezuela, despite not having visited the country since he was a toddler.

Barco — whose father fled Cuba for Venezuela before bringing him to the U.S. at age four — received his Purple Heart medal after an explosion launched him into a wall, resulting in severe burns and a traumatic brain injury. In 2004, he served in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, and saw frequent combat as his deployment was during the height of the Iraqi insurgency.

Embrich went on to write about how Barco was nearly naturalized, as he got help with his U.S. citizenship application from his commanding officer. However, Barco’s file got lost in the application process, and he had no way to track it in the system. As Embrich explained, Barco had a “straightforward path to naturalization” that ended up becoming “an invisible trap door leading to exile.”

‘Caught in limbo’: Decorated Iraq War veteran now target of Trump deportations
A man who served in the U.S. military and survived two combat deployments to Iraq is now at risk of being deported to a country that is refusing to accept him. Rolling Stone columnist Michael Embrich wrote Wednesday about the case of Army veteran Jose Barco, who is now in deportation proceedings even though he’s an honorably discharged Purple Heart…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/caught-in-limbo-decorated-iraq-war-veteran-now-target-of-trump-deportations/ar-AA1CCw84