Venezuelan man demands $1.3 million from Trump administration for deportation to El Salvador

A Venezuelan migrant took the first step Thursday toward suing President Donald Trump's administration in the United States for $1.3 million for the "injuries" caused by sending him to El Salvador's mega-gang prison.

Neiyerver Adrián León Rengel, a 27-year-old barber, was one of 252 Venezuelan migrants deported and sent in March to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) after Trump invoked an 18th-century Alien Enemies Act against members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

He was released on July 18 as part of a trade between Venezuela and the United States, and now lives in Caracas.

The Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) and the League of United Latin American Citizens filed an administrative complaint against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on their behalf, the first step toward a lawsuit.

"We're going to take the case directly to a judge to file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his entire team," León Rengel told AFP at his home in Venezuela. "All this time we haven't heard from our family, who's going to pay for it? How do we get everything we had, that we lost? How do we get it back?"

León Rengel wants his criminal record cleared, but also "some other type of compensation (...) money."

"They made us pay for what they did because it wasn't fair," he insisted. "The suffering of my mother and daughter" who live in Venezuela.

"If they were to investigate each and every person, then they wouldn't have taken us to Cecot."

León Rengel also indicated that "many" of his fellow inmates "are planning to join this action."

"They treated us like animals"

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained León Rengel on March 13, his birthday, in the parking lot of his apartment in Irving, Texas, the complaint reads.

León Rengel presented documentation proving his temporary residency status and his immigration appointment scheduled for 2028, he added, but the agents deemed his tattoos proof of affiliation with the Tren de Aragua.

"He is not a member of that gang," the lawyers insisted, calling his arrest "wrongful and negligent, without cause or due process."

"They lied to him, telling him they would send him back to his country," when in reality "for more than four months, Rengel languished in El Salvador," where he "suffered physical, verbal, and psychological abuse."

"You couldn't speak, laugh, or do anything inside the cell because everything was hit and yelled at," said León Rengel. "They treated us like animals, and it's not fair what they did to us, and for them to come and wash their hands of it as if nothing had happened."

The claim requires blows to the chest and stomach with fists and batons.

"Alarms"

For more than a month, his family was unaware of his whereabouts, the statement said.

León Rengel was part of a group of Venezuelans "whom a federal court ordered the government not to deport or to return if they were in transit, an order that was ignored," according to the complaint.

His brother and partner are still in the United States.

"You don't have to be a constitutional scholar for the Rengel case to raise alarm bells," said Norm Eisen, president of the Democracy Defenders Fund, in a statement.

"If you're an American who believes in justice, this case should be shocking. Detaining and disappearing someone without cause or access to legal recourse is illegal and abhorrent," he added.

The Venezuelan government has said that only seven of the 252 returned Venezuelans had criminal records. Migrants interviewed by AFP estimate the number is higher, about 40.

"It's going to mark me for life to be labeled a criminal, which I'm not," León Rengel said.