Tag Archives: Venezuela

Newsweek: McDonald’s manager detained by ICE agents before company picnic

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A manager at a McDonald’s outlet in New York was detained by immigration authorities earlier this week, despite reportedly holding a valid U.S. work visa and just before the restaurant’s annual company picnic.

Christian Rodriguez, who has worked at the branch in Oceanside, Long Island, for several years, reportedly possesses a Social Security number, according to Newsday.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told Newsweek: “Christian Emmanuel Rodriguez Torrealba, a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela, entered the U.S. on a B-2 tourist visa that required him to leave the U.S. by June 3, 2016. Nearly 10 years later, he is still illegally in the U.S. Rodriguez’s criminal history includes convictions for battery and property damage crimes. ICE arrested this illegal alien on August 21, 2025.

“President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [of Homeland Security Kristi] Noem have been clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”

Newsweek has contacted McDonald’s for comment.

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump has directed his administration to remove millions of migrants without legal status to fulfill his campaign pledge of mass deportation. The White House has maintained that anyone living in the country unlawfully is considered to be a criminal by the incumbent administration.

What To Know

A co-worker who requested anonymity told Newsday that Rodriguez taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after attending a hearing regarding his immigration application, in Bethpage, New York, on August 21, according to the outlet.

He had previously appeared at another hearing on August 7, which colleagues believed went favorably, the outlet reported.

On the day of the second hearing, at around 2 p.m.—the time he was expected at a company picnic—Rodriguez sent a text to a co-worker saying his application had been denied and that ICE had arrested him, per the outlet.

Rodriguez was transported to Central Islip, where ICE appears to be taking detainees to the federal courthouse, according to Newsday.

A resident of the neighboring town of Baldwin, Rodriguez came to the United States in December 2015 on a tourist visa, per the outlet, which reported that Rodriguez’s immigration “notice to appear” stated that he faced possible removal from the United States for staying past the period permitted on his tourist visa.

Concerns have been raised over the economic impacts of the president’s mass removal policy. Immigrants, documented or undocumented, made up 20 percent of U.S. workers at the beginning of the year, but by June that share had fallen to 19 percent, a decrease of more than 750,000 workers, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

What Happens Next

Rodriguez will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

McDonald’s manager detained by ICE agents before company picnic
The man was arrested after attending a hearing regarding his immigration application at a U.S. immigration office in Bethpage, New York.

https://www.newsweek.com/manager-arrested-ice-immigration-agents-company-picnic-2120819

Associated Press: Appeals court blocks Trump administration from ending legal protections for 600,000 Venezuelans

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A federal appeals court on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s plans to end protections for 600,000 people from Venezuela who have had permission to live and work in the United States.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that maintained temporary protected status for Venezuelans while the case proceeded through court.

An email to the Department of Homeland Security for comment was not immediately returned.

The 9th Circuit judges found that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had no authority to vacate or set aside a prior extension of temporary protected status because the governing statute written by Congress does not permit it. Then-President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration had extended temporary protected status for people from Venezuela.

“In enacting the TPS statute, Congress designed a system of temporary status that was predictable, dependable, and insulated from electoral politics,” Judge Kim Wardlaw, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, wrote for panel. The other two judges on the panel were also nominated by Democratic presidents.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco found in March that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on their claim that President Donald Trump’s Republican administration overstepped its authority in terminating the protections and were motivated by racial animus in doing so. Chen ordered a freeze on the terminations, but the Supreme Court reversed him without explanation, which is common in emergency appeals.

It is unclear what effect Friday’s ruling will have on the estimated 350,000 Venezuelans in the group of 600,000 whose protections expired in April. Their lawyers say some have already been fired from jobs, detained in immigration jails, separated from their U.S. citizen children and even deported. Protections for the remaining 250,000 Venezuelans are set to expire Sept. 10.

Congress authorized temporary protected status, or TPS, as part of the Immigration Act of 1990. It allows the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to grant legal immigration status to people fleeing countries experiencing civil strife, environmental disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that prevent a safe return to that home country.

In ending the protections, Noem said that conditions in Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the U.S. national interest to allow migrants from there to stay on for what is a temporary program.

Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger. Their country is mired in a prolonged crisis brought on by years of hyperinflation, political corruption, economic mismanagement and an ineffectual government.

Attorneys for the U.S. government argued the Homeland Security secretary’s clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program were not subject to judicial review. They also denied that Noem’s actions were motivated by racial animus.

Appeals court blocks Trump administration from ending legal protections for 600,000 Venezuelans
A federal appeals court has blocked the Trump administration’s plans to end protections for 600,000 people from Venezuela who have had permission to live and work in the United States.

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-trump-temporary-status-venezuelans-7c70b2d301c43663a6f506af527637a4

Alternet: Trump’s reckoning may be right around the corner — here’s why

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Trump’s possible connection to convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein — who allegedly died by suicide in prison — may be the one thing that undermines his base of support and causes his Republican loyalists in Congress to turn on him. This makes it politically explosive.

With Congress now returning from August recess and the media and Congress looking into “Epsteingate,” the issue will either grow or disappear in the next few weeks.

Roughly half of the country now believes that Trump was involved in crimes committed by Epstein, according to recent polls. And more than two-thirds believes that the Trump administration is hiding information about Epstein.

Before the 2024 presidential election, both Trump and JD Vance called for the release of files related to Epstein. On February 21, Attorney General Pam Bondi, in an appearance on Fox News, said the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”

But the Trump regime still hasn’t released any trove of “Epstein files.” In fact, on July 7, the Justice Department released a memo saying it had found “no incriminating ‘client list’” for Epstein, directly contradicting Bondi.

Then came publication by The Wall Street Journal of what it said was a risqué birthday note Trump wrote to celebrate Epstein’s 50th birthday, prompting Trump to claim that “the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.” The next day, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against Journal over its coverage of his relationship with Epstein, including the birthday note that Trump says he didn’t write.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-defendant who was convicted of sex trafficking minors and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Late Friday, the Justice Department released transcripts of that interview in which Maxwell praises Trump, claims she never saw Trump engage in improper or illegal acts during his long friendship with Epstein, and that there’s no hidden list of powerful clients.

Maxwell’s credibility is questionable. She has a big incentive to tell Trump and his lackeys exactly what they want to hear because she has been trying to overturn or reduce her sentence. Right after her interview she was transferred to a minimum-security prison, a highly unusual move for a convicted sex offender.

Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee has received the first tranche of the Justice Department’s documents in response to its subpoena for all Epstein-related files. Democrats on the Committee claim that fewer 3 percent of the documents are new.

“Epsteingate” has all the hallmarks of a cover-up. Will it bring Trump down? Here are three likely scenarios:

1. Epsteingate keeps growing until it reveals a “smoking gun” that brings Trump down. Assume Trump continues to try to deflect attention from his connection with Epstein by, for example, occupying several American cities and threatening war with Venezuela. Yet the more he tries, the more evidence of his involvement with Epstein mounts. Eventually, a “smoking gun” emerges that forces even Trump loyalists in the House and Senate to vote to impeach and convict him.

2. Nothing comes of it, although it continues to percolate. Periodically, a damaging headline emerges, as more evidence comes out about Trump’s close connections to Epstein. But Trump and his lackeys continue to deflect attention from the stories. His loyalists in Congress refuse to probe any deeper into the issue. He distracts the media with so many controversial neofascist maneuvers that the stories never become a full-blown threat to Trump.

3. The whole Epstein story is a distraction from Trump’s neofascist moves. In reality, the Epstein story is a continuing distraction from what Trump is really doing — his takeover of the nation’s public and private sectors and his alliance with Putin to carve up the world. Every time a new story emerges about the connection between Trump and Epstein, the Trump regime takes more initiatives that violate the laws and the Constitution, but they do so not to distract from his Epstein connection but to take advantage of the public’s obsession with Epstein to bury the regime’s horrific moves.

Trump’s reckoning may be right around the corner — here’s why

https://www.alternet.org/trump-epstein-reckoning-2673924289

Latin Times: Trump Admin Already Sending Migrants To African Country As Part Of Deportation Agreement

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Seven migrants from third countries were sent to Rwanda, the country confirmed

The Trump administration deported seven migrants from third countries to Rwanda in August as part of an agreement, the African nation confirmed on Thursday.

Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said in a statement that the group arrived to the country in mid-August, ABC News reported.

They were “accommodated by an international organization,” Makolo added, and are being visited both by members of the International Organization for Migration and the Rwandan social services.

“Three of the individuals have expressed a desire to return to their home countries, while four wish to stay and build lives in Rwanda,” the spokeswoman added. They are also set to receive workforce training and healthcare. She provided no information of the migrants sent to the country.

Rwanda will take up to 250 migrants following an agreement signed in June.

Four African countries accepted receiving migrants from third countries from the U.S., the other ones being Eswatini, South Sudan and Uganda.

Uganda is the latest one to do so, with CBS News reporting earlier this month that it agreed to the deal as long as deportees don’t have criminal records. It is not clear how many migrants the country is willing to accept.

Overall, at least a dozen countries have already accepted or agreed to accept deportees from third nations so far in the second Trump administration.

Earlier this month the Miami Herald reported that more than three in ten migrants deported to third countries are Venezuelan. The outlet scanned through data obtained by the University of California’s Deportation Data Project. It showed that Venezuelans make up the largest share of deportees sent to countries where they were neither born nor were citizens.

Overall, close to 3,000 Venezuelans were deported to third countries during the first six months of the year, although the outlet clarified that the dataset is likely incomplete. Over two hundreds were infamously sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador, where many claimed to be subjected to numerous abuses before being released as part of a three-part agreement involving the U.S., Venezuela and the Central American country.

Most have been sent to Spanish-speaking countries including Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Spain. However, two were sent to Austria, one to Italy, one to Syria and one to Vanuatu, in the Pacific.

Overall, 7,900 such deportations were recorded by then, with Venezuelans representing 36.71% of the total. They are followed by Guatemalans (20%) and Hondurans (7.8%).

Trump Admin Already Sending Migrants To African Country As Part Of Deportation Agreement
The Trump administration deported migrants from third countries to Rwanda in August, the African nation confirmed

https://www.latintimes.com/trump-admin-already-sending-migrants-african-country-part-deportation-agreement-588923

Washington Examiner: Judges get emotional on Trump efforts to end temporary immigration programs

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The Trump administration has faced various legal setbacks in its efforts to implement sweeping deportations and immigration policies, with some of the judges issuing orders accusing officials of racism and unfavorable comparisons in dramatic opinions.

Judge Trina Thompson, a Biden appointee on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, offered the latest lengthy opinion, aimed at the morals of Trump administration officials trying to end temporary immigration programs for foreign nationals.

Challenges to revoking TPS bring racism allegations by judges

In a 37-page opinion Thursday blocking the administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua, she accused officials of “racial animus” based on their statements about criminal migrants.

“By stereotyping the TPS program and immigrants as invaders that are criminal, and by highlighting the need for migration management, [Homeland] Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s statements perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population,” Thompson wrote in her opinion.

Thompson wrote in her rejection that she “shares” the “concern” of those suing the Trump administration regarding the president’s ability to end TPS at his discretion. The Biden-appointed judge added that her court “does not forget that this country has bartered with human lives” and included a lengthy footnote discussing the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

“The emancipation of slaves saw the same pattern, but in reverse. Many whites were uncomfortable with the idea of free non-white people in their communities, even if they had lived in the United States for generations,” Thompson wrote in her opinion. “Plaintiffs’ allegations echo these same traditions.”

Thompson also alleges that ending TPS for the three countries and requiring those who had the temporary status to return to their home country is the equivalent of freed slaves being removed from the U.S. and sent to Africa.

Earlier this year, Judge Edward Chen, an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS for Venezuela and accused the Trump administration of similar claims of racial animus in his 78-page opinion.

“Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes,” Chen wrote in his March order.

The Trump administration’s official reasons for ending the Temporary Protected Status for the countries have been that the reasons outlined for initially granting TPS are no longer applicable, and conditions have improved.

Other decisions bring emotional responses

While many dramatic opinions from federal judges blocking the Trump administration’s policies have come in TPS lawsuits, judges have also made fiery accusations in other issues. A ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday made another unfavorable comparison about the Trump administration’s policies.

Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, compared the president’s policies blocking the administration from rapidly deporting people who had previously been paroled into the country to the countries that illegal immigrants have fled in her order.

“This case’s underlying question, then, asks whether parolees who escaped oppression will have the chance to plead their case within a system of rules,” Cobb wrote. “Or, alternatively, will they be summarily removed from a country that, as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges … may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?”

Among the various rulings against the Trump administration in district courts, a case regarding the administration’s cancellation of diversity, equity, and inclusion grants at the National Institutes of Health brought another dramatic racial discrimination claim.

“I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable,” U.S. District Judge William Young said in his ruling in June. “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this.”

While the Trump administration has faced dramatic and blistering opinions at lower district courts, it has racked up several wins on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket on various issues, including terminating TPS.

The Supreme Court’s order allowing the administration to proceed with various policies, including immigration policies, has typically been accompanied by fiery dissents from the liberal minority on the high court.

The judges are seeing right through the Trump regime’s disgusting racist agenda!

Judges get emotional on Trump efforts to end temporary immigration programs
The Trump administration has faced various legal setbacks in its efforts to implement sweeping deportations and immigration policies, with some of the judges issuing orders accusing officials of racism and unfavorable comparisons in dramatic opinions. Judge Trina Thompson, a Biden appointee on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, offered the […]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judges-get-emotional-on-trump-efforts-to-end-temporary-immigration-programs/ar-AA1JOuJ5

Washington Examiner: Judge blocks ICE deportation strategy for paroled immigrants

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A federal judge on Friday blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “expedited removal” deportation strategy to detain paroled immigrants as quickly as possible.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb of the District of Columbia ruled that the Trump administration’s use of expedited removal exceeded the Department of Homeland Security’s legal authority, in addition to being arbitrary and capricious. The order temporarily halts the federal government’s efforts to deport immigrants previously paroled into the United States at a port of entry.

Cobb specifically blocked three actions: a DHS memo dated Jan. 23 directing immigration officials to apply expedited removal as broadly as possible; an ICE directive dated Feb. 18 authorizing officers to consider expedited removal for “paroled arriving aliens”; and a DHS notice dated March 25 terminating the Biden-era parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.

The court took issue with the administration’s actions to dismiss parole immigrants’ pending proceedings in immigration court and proceed to arrest them outside the courtroom afterward.

“This case’s underlying question, then, asks whether parolees who escaped oppression will have the chance to plead their case within a system of rules,” Cobb wrote in the 84-page ruling. “Or, alternatively, will they be summarily removed from a country that, as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges, may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?”

Such an incident occurred in June, when New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested for refusing to leave an immigrant whose case was dismissed moments earlier. Lander and his companion were both restrained by masked plainclothes officers as seen in a viral video.

A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have since crafted legislation to bar ICE officers from wearing masks, which the agency says are used to protect its officers from getting doxxed.

Friday’s order is estimated to affect “hundreds of thousands of paroled aliens,” Cobb wrote.

The Trump administration criticized the ruling, saying it defies a Supreme Court ruling from May that upheld the termination of parole status for more than 530,000 illegal immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

“Judge Cobb is flagrantly ignoring the United States Supreme Court, which upheld expedited removals of illegal aliens by a 7-2 majority,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “This ruling is lawless and won’t stand.”

Whine, bitch, whine!

Judge blocks ICE deportation strategy for paroled immigrants
“This ruling is lawless and won’t stand,” the Department of Homeland Security said in response.
Judge blocks ICE deportation strategy for paroled immigrants

Irish Star: United States denies entire team visas for Little League World Series

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A Venezuelan baseball team will not be able to compete in this year’s Little League Senior Baseball World Series after it was denied visas into the United States.

Last month, President Donald Trump unveiled a travel ban to the U.S. on 12 other countries — with athletes slated to compete in the 2026 FIFA World Cup expected to be exempt from the restrictions.

Unfortunately for the Cacique Mara team based in Maracaibo, Venezuela, they were not given the same preferential treatment. And they are not the only team to miss out on a major international competition as a result of United States border policy.

According to the Little League International, the club was unable to secure the required documents needed to enter the United States.

“The Cacique Mara Little League team from Venezuela was unfortunately unable to obtain the appropriate visas to travel to the Senior League Baseball World Series,” an official statement read.

The Cacique Mara team punched their ticket to the tournament after emerging victorious in the Latin American championship in Mexico. In their absence, Santa Maria de Aguayo — the runner-ups in the event — will take their place.

“While this is extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes, the Little League International Tournament Committee has made the decision to advance the second place team, Santa Maria de Aguayo Little League (Victoria, Mexico), to participate in the Senior League Baseball World Series and ensure the Latin America Region is represented in the tournament and that the players, coaches, and families from Mexico are able to have a memorable World Series experience,” the statement continued.

Two weeks ago, the Cacique Mara team traveled to Bogota, Colombia to apply for visas at the U.S. embassy.

“It is a mockery on the part of Little League to keep us here in Bogota with the hope that our children can fulfill their dreams of participating in a world championship,” the team said in a statement.

“What do we do with so much injustice, what do we do with the pain that was caused to our children?”

Kendrick Gutierrez, the Venezuelan league’s president, did little to hide his frustration upon learning that Cacique Mara team had been ruled out of the Senior League Baseball World Series — a tournament for 13-16 year old players held annually in Easley, South Carolina.

“They told us that Venezuela is on a list because Trump says Venezuelans are a threat to the security of his state, of his country,” Gutierrez said. “It hasn’t been easy, the situation. We earned the right to represent Latin America in the world championship.

“I think this is the first time this has happened, but it shouldn’t end this way. They’re going to replace us with another team because relations have been severed. It’s not fair. I don’t understand why they put Mexico in at the last minute and left Venezuela out.”

Overseas teams should say “Screw Trump’s Amerika” and set up their own Little League International Tournament — make it truly international and leave the U.S. behind.

Little League World Series finds replacement after entire team denied visas
A Venezuelan baseball team was denied visas into the United States, not being allowed to compete in its World Series tournament, with the country being replaced despite earning its spot

https://www.irishstar.com/sport/other-sports/little-league-baseball-venezuela-mexico-35630049

Inquisitr: Immigrants Deported by Trump ‘Forced to Lick Backs of Other Inmates’ by Guards in El Salvador Prison—Survivor Opens Up About Months of Torture

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Immigrants who were imprisoned in CECOT speak up against Donald Trump and the harsh treatment they had to endure at the terrorism centre.

Several detainees who were allegedly unfairly deported by the Trump administration are speaking up against their brutal treatment. The immigrants who were allegedly falsely accused of being Venezuelan gang members are speaking up against the U.S. government.

Juan José Ramos Ramos, a Venezuelan, recently spoke up about the harsh conditions he had to endure in CECOT. The 39-year-old was one of the hundreds of immigrants who boarded planes that took them to El Salvador’s maximum security prison.

Trump’s administration has been under fire for its aggressive deportation practices, some of which have not adhered to the law. The President even made the controversial decision of invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which was introduced in the 1700s.

Under the act, the government is given the authority to detain, relocate, and deport aliens deemed to be “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” What followed were mass deportations carried out in disorderly manner.

Hundreds of Venezuelans have been arrested and deported by ICE agents. The immigrants were accused of being members of a deadly gang without providing sufficient proof to support the claims. The men were then admitted into El Salvador’s high-security prison known as CECOT.

Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano was one of these men who was forced to endure the brutal conditions of the terrorism confinement center. The 31-year-old alleges that he was brutally beaten up by the guards at the prison. The guards allegedly stomped on his hands repeatedly and poured dirty water into his ears.

Solórzano claimed that the guards also forced him to lick the backs of the other inmates. Juan José Ramos Ramos, another Venezuelan who found himself in prison, alleged that Donald Trump is not who he claims to be.

Ramos, who claims he has had a clean criminal record, was arrested by ICE agents on the basis of no conclusive proof whatsoever. The man recalled how his tattoos got him in trouble with the immigration agents. Ramos was simply driving his car when ICE agents spotted a Venezuela sticker on his car and took him into custody.

The Rawstory investigated the alleged unfair deportation of these men and found shocking statistics related to their cases. The outlet reported that 197 out of 238 men who were arrested and deported had no prior criminal record.

What’s even more shocking is that the report alleges that the Trump administration knew about the same. More than half of these individuals had open immigration cases at the time of their deportation.

The common denominator between the men who were arrested was that 166 of them had tattoos on their bodies. Abigail Jackson, who serves as a spokesperson for the White House, addressed the claims in a statement.

She noted how ProPublica, one of the outlets that investigated the matter, was a “liberal rag hellbent on defending violent criminal illegal aliens who never belonged in the United States.” Jackson went on to write about how America is “safer” without the immigrants who have been deported.

Immigrants Deported by Trump ‘Forced to Lick Backs of Other Inmates’ by Guards in El Salvador Prison—Survivor Opens Up About Months of Torture
Immigrants who were imprisoned in CECOT speak up against Donald Trump and the harsh treatment they had to endure at the terrorism centre. Here’s what the detainees said about their time in the prison.

His Name Is Jesus. He’s a Carpenter. ICE Arrested Him.

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Seriously.

Jesus Teran fled persecution in Venezuela, seeking asylum in the United States in 2021 and joining his family in Imperial, Pennsylvania, half an hour outside Pittsburgh. He was living a version of the American Dream. Beloved by his community, he gave food to the needy, and when they created a communal garden to forge ties between a mostly white church and his more Latino one, Jesus was there, tilling the ground, repairing a faulty tiller, and watering the plants twice a week, according to the Observer-Reporter, a local paper.

Jesus, 35, trained in Venezuela to be a civil engineer. But he lacked the credentials or English skills to pursue that profession in the United States. So he made do by working at convenience stores and delivering with DoorDash. He did this all while learning English, his former teacher Barbara Hopkins told me.

It seemed his hard work was paying off when he was accepted into the carpenters apprenticeship program at the KML Carpenters Training Center in the winter of 2024. The promise of working construction wasn’t as alluring as being an engineer, but it was a step up the ladder. His family was elated.

Then, this year, Jesus’s life was thrown into chaos. On July 8, he went for a customary check-in at the ICE Pittsburgh field office. But he was detained and sent to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg, three hours away from where the family lives.

Jesus’s detention resembles thousands of other stories that are quickly defining American society in the age of Trump deportations. It has shaken his church community and inspired local leaders, union representatives, and Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh retired Bishop David Zubik to write more than twenty letters on his behalf.

“It’s been a heartbreaking experience. He’s been faithfully appearing at ICE appointments for more than four years, he was following the protocols of ICE, he was complying with everything he’s supposed to do. All of a sudden, he’s detained,” said Rev. Jay Donahue of St. Oscar Romero Parish, where Jesus’s family are members. “Jesus is not someone who should be subjected to this undignified experience that he’s going through. It’s a shame the way they are treating him; it is inhumane. It’s been inspiring to see the community rally around Jesus and to recognize what he means to our community.”

Jesus was denied entry into the United States in 2015, before successfully entering six years later. Still, that previous attempt to enter reduces the chances that his asylum claim would be successful. Further, a successful asylum process can take years.

Charles Kuck, a top immigration lawyer, said that even if Jesus’s asylum claim were denied during the Biden administration, it wasn’t a guarantee that he would have to be immediately removed. There are cases where people receive a withholding of removal, Kuck explained, “when they don’t want to deport you, if you’re a good person.”

Jesus’s family declined multiple requests to speak for this story, so additional details about his case are difficult to glean. But what I discovered when talking to friends, colleagues, and even his former teachers ….

His Name Is Jesus. He’s a Carpenter. ICE Arrested Him.
Seriously.

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/his-name-is-jesus-carpenter-arrested-ice-venezuela-pennsylvania-immigration

Guardian: Men freed from El Salvador mega-prison endured ‘state-sanctioned torture’, lawyers say

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Venezuelans back home under Maduro-Trump deal tell of isolation, beatings and dirty water – ‘a living nightmare’

On 14 March, [Ramos Bastidas] shared with his family that maybe he would be able to come back to Venezuela after all …. The next day, he was flown to Cecot.

“They could have deported him to Venezuela,” Alvarez-Jones. “Instead, the US government made a determination to send him to be tortured in Cecot.”

Venezuelans that the Trump administration expelled to El Salvador’s most notorious megaprison endured “state-sanctioned torture”, lawyers for some of the men have said, as more stories emerge about the horrors they faced during capacity.

When José Manuel Ramos Bastidas – one of 252 Venezuelan men that the US sent to El Salvador’s most notorious mega-prison – finally made it back home to El Tocuyo on Tuesday, the first thing he did was stretch his arms around his family.

His wife, son and mother were wearing the bright blue shirts they had printed with a photo of him, posed in a yellow and black moto jacket and camo-print jeans. It was the first time they had hugged him since he left Venezuela last year. And it was the first time they could be sure – truly sure – that he was alive and well since he disappeared into the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Cecot) in March.

“We have been waiting for this moment for months, and I feel like I can finally breathe,” said Roynerliz Rodríguez, Ramos Bastidas’s partner. “These last months have been a living nightmare, not knowing anything about José Manuel and only imagining what he must be suffering. I am happy he is free from Cecot, but I also know that we will never be free of the shadow of this experience. There must be justice for all those who suffered this torture.”

The Venezuelan deportees were repatriated last week following a deal between the US and Venezuelan governments. Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, negotiated a prisoner swap that released 10 American citizens in his custody and dozens of Venezuelan political prisoners in exchange for the release of his citizens from Cecot.

This week, after undergoing medical and background checks, they are finally reuniting with their families. Their testimonies of what they experienced inside Cecot are providing the first, most detailed pictures of the conditions inside Cecot, a mega-prison that human rights groups say is designed to disappear people.

Ramos Bastidas and other US deportees were told that they were condemned to spend 30 to 90 years in Cecot unless the US president ordered otherwise, he told his lawyers. They were shot with rubber bullets on repeated occasions – including on Friday, during their last day of detention.

In interviews with the media and in testimony provided to their lawyers, other detainees described lengthy beatings and humiliation by guards. After some detainees tried to break the locks on their cell, prisoners were beaten for six consecutive days, the Atlantic reports. Male guards reportedly brought in female colleagues, who beat the naked prisoners and recorded videos.

Edicson David Quintero Chacón, a US deportee, said that he was placed in isolation for stretches of time, during which he thought he would die, his lawyer told the Guardian. Quintero Chacón, who has scars from daily beatings, also said that he and other inmates were only provided soap and an opportunity to bathe on days when visitors were touring the prison – forcing them to choose between hygiene and public humiliation.

Food was limited, and the drinking water was dirty, Quintero Chacón and other detainees have said. Lights were on all night, so detainees could never fully rest. “And the guards would also come in at night and beat them at night,” said his lawyer Stephanie M Alvarez-Jones, the south-east regional attorney at the National Immigration Project.

In a filing asking for a dismissal of her months-long petition on behalf of her clients’ release, Alvarez-Jones wrote: “He will likely carry the psychological impact of this torture his whole life. The courts must never look away when those who wield the power of the US government, at the highest levels, engage in such state-sanctioned violence.”

Ramos Bastidas has never been convicted of any crimes in the US (or in any country). In fact, he had never really set foot in the US as a free man.

In El Tocuyo, in the Venezuelan state of Lara, and had been working since he was a teenager to support his family. Last year, he decided to leave his country – which has yet to recover from an economic collapse – to seek better income, so he could pay for medical care for his infant with severe asthma.

In March 2024, he arrived at the US-Mexico border and presented himself at a port of entry. He made an appointment using the now-defunct CBP One phone application to apply for asylum – but immigration officials and a judge determined that he did not qualify.

But Customs and Border Protection agents had flagged Ramos Bastidas as a possible member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, based on an unsubstantiated report from Panamanian officials and his tattoos. So they transferred him to a detention facility, where he was to remain until he could be deported.

Despite agreeing to return to Venezuela, he remained for months in detention. “I think what is particularly enraging for José is that he had accepted his deportation,” said Alvarez-Jones. “He was asking for his deportation for a long time, and he just wanted to go back home.”

In December, Venezuela wasn’t accepting deportees – so Ramos Bastidas asked if he could be released and make his own way home. A month later, Donald Trump was sworn in as president. Everything changed.

Ramos Bastidas began to see other Venezuelans were being sent to the military base in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba – and he feared the same would happen to him. On 14 March, he shared with his family that maybe he would be able to come back to Venezuela after all, after officials began prepping him for deportation.

The next day, he was flown to Cecot.

“They could have deported him to Venezuela,” Alvarez-Jones. “Instead, the US government made a determination to send him to be tortured in Cecot.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/26/venezuela-el-salvador-prison