It has been brought to our attention by legal experts in our community that this article, previously titled “Four refugees were sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador. These are their stories.”, may have inaccurately described the legal status of the four men who were sent to CECOT. Someone who enters the United States as a “refugee” enters with refugee status. Conversely, an asylee is someone who enters without status as an asylee but is later granted asylee status in the United States. We are unable to confirm the exact status of these four men when they entered the United States as reporting is unclear. Either way, we believe their stories to be worth sharing.
We apologize for the inaccuracy and are thankful to our colleagues for pointing it out.
Four men who came to our country requesting aid are among those who were renditioned to the CECOT prison in El Salvador despite the government previously having allowed them to stay in the United States due to fear they would be persecuted abroad.
Juanita Goebertus, Director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch, reported the Salvadoran government has overcrowded CECOT, denied inmates the right to see relatives and lawyers under accusations of “terrorism,” prevented human rights monitors from entering the prison, and withheld essential goods such as food, water, and medicine from detainees. Furthermore, multiple inmates have alleged abuse at the hands of guards that often leaves them with bruises and broken bones.
To learn more about the backgrounds of these men is to understand the additional risk that the Trump administration’s actions are imposing on those who flee to the United States.
Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino
Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino is a 24-year-old from Venezuela who was studying electrical engineering before he fled the country with his family due to economic and political circumstances, according to the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Agelviz-Sanguino’s family all entered with the CBP App and claimed asylum. He was detained when ICE found a tattoo of a rose on his arm, alleging it signified he was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.
While undergoing court dates for his asylum claim, he mysteriously vanished until his mother found out two weeks later that he had been sent to CECOT despite not being charged with any crimes.
On May 9, Agelviz-Sanguino filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, suing multiple DHS and ICE officials, including Secretary Kristi Noem, alleging that his Fifth Amendment rights had been violated.
The case was effectively dismissed on May 23 when the district court dismissed all named respondents.
As part of a prisoner swap involving at least 250 Venezuelan men, CECOT released Agelviz-Sanguino back to Venezuela on July 18th.
Edson Manrique
Edson Manrique was profiled in the Miami Herald as having fled Venezuela for Colombia with his girlfriend in 2021 after they had been targeted by both authorities and paramilitary groups for criticizing the government. The two then applied for refugee status in the United States and upheld clean criminal records while undergoing interviews for their application.
In a September 2024 interview, Manrique disclosed that he had tattoos. After being granted asylum status, he was arrested in Houston following another question about his tattoos.
As is the case with many of the individuals deported to CECOT, Manrique’s tattoos were cited as evidence that he was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Manrique’s uncle claims that Manrique has had the tattoos since he was a young boy.
Daniela Palma, Manrique’s girlfriend, told the Herald that she believes Manrique was targeted for hailing from Aragua and maintains his innocence.
His current status is not confirmed. It is likely that he was released back to Venezuela along with more than 250 others in July. Not all names were made public as part of that prisoner swap.
Roger Molina-Acevedo
Roger Molina-Acevedo was a 29-year-old who arrived in the United States from Colombia with his partner, Daniela Núñez, through the State Department’s Safe Mobility Initiative on Jan. 8.
As part of his entry through the Safe Mobility Initiative, Molina-Acevedo had to endure a lengthy series of interviews and prove that he had a clean criminal and work record and faced substantial persecution in his home country.
Molina-Acevedo, like many of the others profiled here, was originally from Venezuela but had to flee to Colombia in 2021 after a fundraiser he posted on Facebook to improve his local soccer field was seen as an attack on the Maduro government and he started facing death threats from government-affiliated groups on WhatsApp.
Upon his eventual arrival in Houston with Núñez on Jan. 8, Molina-Acevedo was stopped by a Customs and Border Protection officer who asked if he had any tattoos. He responded that he had multiple tattoos on his body before an officer asked to see his phone and found that in a WhatsApp group with friends he had made a joke about Tren de Aragua.
The two were detained for further questioning and when given the choice between staying in the U.S. or returning to Colombia, Núñez chose the latter.
Molina-Acevedo was kept detained in Texas until March 17 when his family was informed by staff at the facility he was in that he was to be deported to Venezuela despite the facility’s website still listing him as a prisoner.
However, Molina-Acevedo was not sent to Venezuela. A few days after receiving news of the alleged deportation, his family found his name in the leaked list of deportees sent to CECOT.
Tattoos and a joke among friends resulted in a man being sent to a living hell.
His current status is not confirmed. It is likely that he was released back to Venezuela along with 251 others in July. Not all names were made public as part of that prisoner swap.
Euder Jose Torres-Herrera
Euder Jose Torres-Herrera is a 41-year-old from Venezuela entered the United States with his youngest son in September of 2024.
Torres-Herrera left his native Venezuela for Ecuador in 2021 to be with his partner, Eira, and her children after they had emigrated. Eira later moved to the U.S. in 2023 under Temporary Protected Status and a work permit, which allowed Torres-Herrera to enter through the International Organization for Migration’s family resettlement and reunification programs.
Even though both men had passed a background check as part of their clearance to enter the U.S., Torres-Herrera and his son were detained at the airport for a tattoo the son had, resulting in his prompt deportation to Ecuador and Euder being placed in custody.
Euder claimed asylum, but he was denied his claim, ordered to be deported, and mislabeled as a member of Tren de Aragua on January 17. He was held at a facility in Rio Grande, Texas, awaiting deportation.
Eira attempted to contact the facility on March 17 to find out Euder’s whereabouts, only to learn he had been deported two days prior. On March 20, she read a leaked list of CECOT detainees containing his name.
The family has not yet been able to contact Euder or acquire a lawyer for his case.
While this case began before Trump’s inauguration, Torres-Herrera’s deportation to a place as inhospitable and inhumane as CECOT is a unique development of this administration’s approach to immigration policy.
As part of a prisoner swap involving at least 250 Venezuelan men, CECOT released Euder back to Venezuela on July 18th.
An Absence of Due Process
In all four cases, due process was denied to these people before they were sent to CECOT.
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution include clauses assuring the right to a fair trial for all people within America’s borders, which applies even to non-citizens. Before deportation can occur for a non-citizen, they have a right to have their case heard before a judge who can determine if the non-citizen should stay in the country.
None of these men sent to CECOT were provided a lawyer or the ability to argue their cases before a judge.
Unfortunately, immigration law in the United States possessed issues with due process in deportation cases even before the second Trump presidency.
Those facing deportation are not guaranteed the right to an attorney, which is given under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. Immigration law is full of many complexities, making the employ of a lawyer practicing in that field indispensable for determining if an immigrant has the right to remain in the United States.
Executive orders on immigration signed by Trump have demanded an increase in deportations that will clog immigration courts with cases, according to the Center for Migration Studies. These executive orders also remove many entryways and work programs for refugees although they already face some of the toughest vetting processes to enter the country.
The stories of these people reinforces the flaws of American immigration law and presents a dark story of where it could be headed under the new presidential administration.