Trump Administration And Due Process

TurdLok

Due process has been skipped over by the Trump administration and they have basically kidnapped over 300 innocent immigrants shipping them off to a concentration camp in El Salvador

Transcript

00:00Three weeks ago, 238 Venezuelan migrants were flown from Texas to a maximum security

00:08prison in El Salvador.

00:11That country's president offered to take them, and the Trump administration used a

00:15law not invoked since World War II to send them, claiming they are all terrorists and

00:20violent gang members.

00:22The government has released very little information about the men, but through internal government

00:27documents, we've obtained a list of their identities and found that an overwhelming majority have

00:33no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges.

00:38They are now prisoners.

00:40Among them, a makeup artist, a soccer player, and a food delivery driver, being held in a

00:45place so harsh that El Salvador's justice minister once said the only way out is in a coffin.

00:53The shackled men were forced to lower their heads and bodies as they were unloaded from

00:58buses and taken to El Salvador's mega prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center,

01:05or SECOT.

01:06Andri Hernandez Romero was among them.

01:09Andri is a 31-year-old Venezuelan.

01:13He's a makeup artist.

01:15He is a gay man.

01:17He loves to do theater.

01:18He was part of a theater troupe in his hometown.

01:22Lindsay Toslowski, Andri's attorney, says he does not have a criminal record in the United

01:27States or Venezuela.

01:29She says he left his home country last year because he was targeted for being gay and

01:34for his political views.

01:37Last May, Andri made the long trek north through the Darien Gap to Mexico, where he eventually

01:42got an appointment to seek asylum in the United States.

01:46At a legal border crossing near San Diego, he was taken into custody while his case was

01:51processed.

01:53Did he have a strong asylum case?

01:55We believe he did have a strong asylum case.

01:57He had also done a credible fear interview, which is the very first part of seeking asylum

02:02in the United States.

02:04And the government had found that his threats against him were credible and that he had a

02:08real probability of winning an asylum claim.

02:11But last month, Andri did not appear for a court hearing.

02:15Our client who was in the middle of seeking asylum just disappeared.

02:20One day he was there and the next day we're supposed to have court and he wasn't brought

02:25to court.

02:26You used the word disappeared.

02:27Yeah, I used that word because that's what happened.

02:31But Andri did appear in photos taken by Time magazine photographer Philip Holsinger, who

02:36was there when the Venezuelans arrived at Sukkot.

02:40Holsinger told us he heard a young man say, I'm not a gang member, I'm gay, I'm a stylist.

02:47And then he cried for his mother as he was slapped and had his head shaved.

02:52By comparing Holsinger's photographs to photos of Andri's tattoos taken by the government, we

02:57were able to confirm that this is Andri.

03:01His lawyer, who was representing him pro bono, had never seen these photos before.

03:10It's horrifying to see someone who we've met and know as a sweet, funny artist in the most

03:22horrible conditions I could imagine.

03:24You fear for Andri's safety in there?

03:27Absolutely.

03:28We have grave concerns about whether he can survive.

03:32In October, Tom Homan, who is now the White House border czar, told 60 Minutes the Trump

03:38administration's mass deportation plan would start by removing the worst of the worst.

03:43We're going to prioritize those convictions.

03:46We're going to prioritize those non-security threats.

03:47We have to do that.

03:48You've got to get the worst first.

03:50But are they the worst?

03:52The Trump administration has yet to release the identities of the Venezuelan men it sent

03:56to El Salvador last month.

03:58We obtained internal government documents listing their names and any known criminal information.

04:04We cross-referenced that with domestic and international court filings, news reports, and arrest records

04:10whenever we could find them.

04:12At least 22 percent of the men on the list have criminal records here in the United States

04:18or abroad.

04:19The vast majority are for non-violent offenses like theft, shoplifting, and trespassing.

04:26About a dozen are accused of murder, rape, assault, and kidnapping.

04:30For 3 percent of those deported, it is unclear whether a criminal record exists.

04:35But we could not find criminal records for 75 percent of the Venezuelans' 179 men now sitting

04:43in prison.

04:45In response to our findings, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said many

04:50of those without criminal records, quote, are actually terrorists, human rights abusers,

04:56gangsters, and more.

04:57They just don't have a rap sheet in the U.S.

05:00Border czar Tom Homan said immigration agents spent hours conducting rigorous checks on each

05:06of the men to confirm they are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang President Trump

05:12campaigned on eradicating.

05:14To expedite removals of the Tren de Aragua savage gangs, I will invoke the Alien Enemies

05:21Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American

05:29soil.

05:30But in Andri's case, the only evidence the government presented in immigration court were these pictures of his

05:36tattoos.

05:38The crowns, which immigration authorities say can be a symbol of Tren de Aragua.

05:42These are tattoos that not only have a plausible explanation because he is someone who worked in the beauty

05:49pageant industry, but also the crowns themselves were on top of the names of his parents.

05:54The most possible explanation for that are that his mom and dad are his king and queen.

05:59Could it be possible that there is something that perhaps the government knows that you don't?

06:05I don't think that that is possible, but if it was possible that they had some information, they should follow the

06:13constitution, present that information, give us the ability to reply to it.

06:18A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said on social media that its intelligence assessments go well

06:25beyond just gang-affiliate tattoos.

06:28She said Andri's own social media indicates he is a member of Tren de Aragua.

06:33We went back a decade and could only find photos like these.

06:38Tattoos in social media were also used to link another Venezuelan migrant,

06:43Jersey Reyes Barrios, to the Tren de Aragua gang.

06:47Immigration court documents include this Facebook post from 14 years ago,

06:52showing him flashing what officers said was a gang sign.

06:56His girlfriend told us it was all about rock and roll.

07:00Immigration agents also flagged Jersey's crown tattoo as a gang symbol,

07:05but they did not mention the crown is above a soccer ball.

07:08Jersey was a soccer player in Venezuela.

07:11His lawyer says the tattoo honors his favorite team, Real Madrid, whose logo includes a crown.

07:18Organized crime analysts told us members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang can often be identified by signature tattoos,

07:27but Tren de Aragua is different.

07:29Are tattoos a reliable indicator of membership in Tren de Aragua?

07:34No. Expert after expert tells us tattoos are not a reliable indicator of whether you're part of this particular gang.

07:42Legal Ernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union,

07:46is leading the legal challenge against the Trump administration's efforts to send migrants to Sukkot.

07:52There are a lot of people who might hear what you're saying and say,

07:56these people don't have papers, they should be deported.

08:00To that you say what?

08:02If they are here illegally and don't have a right to stay, they can be deported back to their home country.

08:09If they've committed crimes, they can be prosecuted and perhaps spend many, many years in a U.S. prison.

08:15It's not a matter of can these individuals be punished.

08:19It's a matter of how the government is going to go about doing it.

08:23Once we start using wartime authority with no oversight, anything is possible.

08:28Anybody can be picked up.

08:30Last month, President Trump did what he had promised on the campaign trail.

08:34He invoked a 1798 law called the Alien Enemies Act,

08:39which allows the president to remove non-citizens without immigration hearings

08:44during times of war or invasion.

08:47Every administration back to 1798 has understood this is wartime authority to be used

08:53when the United States is at war with a foreign government.

08:57The administration is saying, not only are we going to use it against a criminal organization,

09:01but you, the courts, have no role.

09:04You cannot tell us that we're violating the law or stop us.

09:08Does the U.S. even have the legal right to send someone who's been deported

09:14from its country to a foreign prison?

09:16The United States does not have that right.

09:19You know, I want to go back to World War II, the last time that any president used this authority.

09:24We send people back to their home country.

09:27We didn't send them to a foreign prison.

09:29Even during World War II, Germans had the right to contest their designation under the Alien Enemies Act.

09:36As one of the judges pointed out in the appeals court,

09:39Nazis had more process than were giving to these Venezuelan men.

09:44Before the three planes arrived in El Salvador, U.S. District Judge James Bosberg ordered the Trump administration to turn them around.

09:53Flight tracking data shows two planes were in the air at the time and one was about to take off from Texas.

09:59Instead of turning around, all the planes made a stop at a military base in Honduras.

10:05And then, despite Judge Bosberg's verbal and written orders, the planes all flew to El Salvador.

10:13Since then, the U.S. government has disclosed very few details about the operation.

10:18CBS News published the only list of all 238 deportees.

10:23The government is refusing to answer almost every question from the court.

10:27Based on what grounds?

10:29Well, now they've invoked what's called the state secrets privilege.

10:32They are saying they can't even confirm details about the planes.

10:36We asked a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman what evidence the government has,

10:42besides tattoos and social media posts, linking people like Andrea and Hersey to Tren de Aragua.

10:49She cited state secrets and ongoing litigation as the reasons DHS cannot comment on these individual allegations.

10:57Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who visited Sukkot last month, declined our request for an interview.

11:07At the prison, she recorded this video.

11:10She was standing in front of a cell packed with Salvadoran gang members, not Venezuelans.

11:15But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.

11:21The Trump administration is paying El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's government

11:27$6 million to house prisoners it sends to Sukkot.

11:31Lawyers and family members of the Venezuelans told us they've had no contact with the men since they arrived.

11:37Do you have any idea how long he might be there?

11:42We have no idea.

11:44Alirio Antonio Fuenmayor's younger brother, Alirio Guillermo, was picked up by immigration

11:49agents while working as a food delivery driver in Utah. Though he had no criminal record,

11:55he was sent to El Salvador last month.

11:59He is an innocent person. He has not committed any crime. And he's in a maximum security prison.

12:05The ACLU's League Alert has spent decades challenging immigration policies of Democratic

12:13and Republican administrations. But on the fate of the Venezuelan men?

12:18What would you say to these families who are terrified right now about their relatives

12:24currently sitting in this prison in El Salvador? Will they ever see them again?

12:28I hope so. But, you know, there's a real danger that they remain there.

12:33You're saying that there are Venezuelans who very well may have no gang ties,

12:41that are right now in one of the hardest of hardcore prisons in the world,

12:47that may never get out. They may never see the light of day again.

12:51That's what I'm saying.

12:58What photographer Philip Holsinger saw in El Salvador?

13:01I had this sort of sense of, I'm watching these guys disappear.

13:05At 60MinutesOvertime.com. Sponsored by Nerdtech ODT.

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