Thu Jul 24 23:33:47 UTC 2025: **Venezuelan Man Claims Wrongful Deportation and Abuse in El Salvador Prison, Files Complaint Against Trump Administration**
**Washington D.C.** – Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel, a 27-year-old Venezuelan barber, has filed a complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), alleging he was wrongfully accused of gang membership, deported to El Salvador, and subjected to beatings and abuse in a notorious maximum-security prison.
Rengel’s case is the first known complaint from the more than 250 Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) in March under the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The act, typically reserved for wartime, was used to expedite the deportation of alleged gang members.
According to the complaint, Rengel, who was seeking legal status in the U.S. after entering via the CBP One app, was arrested in Texas on March 13th and accused of belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua based on his tattoos. He was then deported to El Salvador, despite DHS assurances he would be returned to Venezuela.
Rengel alleges that he endured physical, verbal, and psychological abuse within CECOT, a prison designed to hold 40,000 inmates, including being beaten by prison guards. The Trump administration reportedly paid El Salvador nearly $6 million to imprison the deportees.
Rengel, through the Democracy Defenders Fund, is seeking $1.3 million in damages and accusing the Trump administration of circumventing his due process rights.
The Trump administration has defended its actions, accusing Rengel of being a gang member and asserting its right to remove “foreign terrorist enemies” from the U.S. “We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims,” the DHS stated.
Rengel was recently released as part of a prisoner exchange between Venezuela and the U.S. He remains with his mother and is reportedly afraid to return to the U.S.
The Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act for mass deportations has faced legal challenges. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg has questioned the legality of the deportations, ordering the deportees be returned to the US and has indicated that the Trump administration may be in contempt of court for failing to do so. In June, Boasberg further ruled that the deported Venezuelan men must be given the opportunity to challenge their removals in US courts, citing “significant evidence” that many were being held “in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations”.
The complaint has been filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, giving the government six months to respond before a lawsuit can be filed.
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