US: With no criminal record, Venezuelan football player wrongly deported over misinterpretation of tattoo
A Venezuelan soccer player who was in the U.S. awaiting a ruling on his asylum claim was deported to El Salvador under suspicion of being a member of a dangerous gang in what his attorney said was a misinterpretation of a tattoo.
Agents who detained Jerce Reyes Barrios, 36, last September said his tattoo was “proof of gang membership,” his attorney Linette Tobin wrote in a sworn statement this week.
But the tattoo – a crown sitting atop a soccer ball with a rosary and the word “Dios,” which means God in Spanish – was designed to look like the logo for Reyes Barrios’ favorite soccer team, Real Madrid, Tobin said.
Reyes Barrios was apparently one of the over 200 Venezuelan migrants swept up in the Trump administration’s deportations under the Alien Enemies Act in a deal with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to hold the detainees at a notorious prison there. The deportations have kicked off a legal back-and-forth between the administration and a federal judge, while the government has refused to make public any evidence that the Venezuelans are affiliated with Tren de Aragua.
Reyes Barrios’ attorney and family members haven’t been able to contact him since he was deported on March 15 and have no information about his condition, Tobin said.
“He has never been arrested or charged with a crime,” Tobin said in the sworn statement.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about Reyes Barrios’ case on Friday, but agency spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the New York Post that officials are “confident” in their determination of his gang affiliation. McLaughlin said it was based on more than just one tattoo, and that his tattoos are consistent with membership in
Reyes Barrios has no criminal record and was a professional soccer player and coach for kids in Venezuela, Tobin said. He fled the country last year after allegedly being detained and “tortured” in a “clandestine building” in Venezuela after he publicly demonstrated against President Nicolás Maduro, Tobin said.
Tobin said he went to Mexico, where he registered with the CBP One app introduced under the Biden administration to allow migrants to schedule asylum hearings and request entry at the border. Trump shut that app when he took office. Reyes Barrios presented himself on the day of his appointment , but was taken into custody, Tobin said.
DHS agents thought Reyes Barrios was a Tren de Aragua member because of his tattoo and a social media post they found, and put him in maximum security, Tobin said. The post showed him holding up his hands in a gesture using his thumb, index finger and pinkie.
“DHS reviewed his social media posts and found a photo of Mr. Reyes Barrios making a hand gesture that they allege is proof of gang membership,” Tobin wrote in the affidavit. “In fact, the gesture is a common one that means I Love You in sign language and is commonly used as a Rock&Roll symbol.”
US Today
