San Francisco Frontiers - 'Dream turned nightmare' for Venezuelan migrant deported from US by Trump

"I don't know if my son is okay, if he is sick, I don't know if he is eating at all," Wilmer Gutierrez, Merwil's father, told AFP.

"The relatives of all those who are there" have the same concerns, he said.

Merwil does not know why he was taken to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in a wave of deportations that has stirred legal debate in the United States over a lack of due process and alleged human rights violations, his father said.

Merwil was arrested by agents around 11:00 pm on February 24 from the door of the Bronx building where he lived, after buying dinner and socializing with neighbors.

The agents initially asked for another man with a different name, his father said.

After checking his identity, one agent told him he could go, but another decided to detain him, along with two others, said Wilmer in a park in front of their building.

He last spoke to his son while Merwil was detained in a Texas processing center where he learned that he would be deported the next day. Both men assumed it would be to their native Venezuela.

"When we found out that those flights had arrived in El Salvador... we weren't sure about whether they had sent him to Venezuela, because no flight was due to leave for there," said the 40-year-old father of three.

Until US authorities issued a list of those deported to El Salvador some days later, Wilmer was in the dark about his son's whereabouts.

The removals conducted by the Trump administration sparked condemnation and allegations he has run roughshod over the law, court orders and human rights in his push to conduct the "largest deportation effort in US history."

- 'Simply a kidnapping' -

One of the most publicized was the removal of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was apparently deported to his native El Salvador by accident.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

Last week, a Texas judge blocked deportations like Merwil Gutierrez's under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.

Previously, the US Supreme Court and several district courts had temporarily halted the expulsions.

Merwil had filed for asylum, said lawyer Ana de Jesus from the organization Immigracion al Dia, who described what happened to her client as "horrible."

Together with other migrant support organizations, they are considering seeking a court order demanding the government correct its abuse of power.

"Regardless of whether something can be done or not, what we're trying to do is make noise, public pressure because what is being done -- not following due process, not allowing us to help our clients -- it is simply a kidnapping," said de Jesus.

In Merwil's case, two US lawmakers from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Adriano Espaillat, said in a statement "we are horrified by ICE's abduction of Merwil Gutierrez, who was violently taken from his doorstop in the Bronx and deported to El Salvador."

After an arduous journey through the famously dangerous jungles of the Darien Gap, between Colombia and Panama, following hundreds of thousands of other Venezuelans, Wilmer and his then 17-year-old son entered the US in July 2023 seeking asylum.

Wilmer insists his son, whom he describes as passionate about clothing and shoes, did not have the tattoos commonly linked by law enforcement to the violent Tren de Aragua Venezuelan street gang.

"If they made a mistake in this country, then let them do the time in this country or send them to their own country," said Wilmer. Father and son both worked nights at a packaging warehouse since arriving in New York.

On the night of his arrest, Merwil was off work.

"That dream (of coming to the United States) turned into a nightmare. It was beautiful while we were coming," the father said, swiping through images of their journey on his phone.

"Look at his childlike face," he said wistfully.

"If they send him back to Venezuela... I would grab my suitcase and leave -- that's where the American dream ends."

N.Flores--SFF