Jhon Chacin, a professional tattoo artist, has images of “a flower, a watch, an owl, skulls” and family members’ names etched onto his skin.
Then last weekend, after not hearing from him for several days, shocked family members spotted him in a video of shaved and chained prisoners at a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
“He doesn’t have a criminal record, he’d never been arrested,“ Chacin’s sister Yuliana, who lives in Texas, told AFP.
At the US detention center, before being deported, “ICE (immigration) agents told him he belonged to a criminal gang because he had a lot of tattoos.”
Twenty-three-year-old Edwuar Hernandez Herrera, known to family and friends as Edward, left Venezuela in 2023.
He has four tattoos -- his mother and daughter's names, an owl on his forearm and ears of corn on his chest, according to his mother Yarelis Herrera.
Herrera's friend Ringo Rincon, 39, has nine tattoos, including a watch showing the times his son and daughters were born, said his wife Roslyany Camano.
US authorities have provided little public evidence to support claims that all the deportees were members of Tren de Aragua (TdA).
But Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin cited tattoos as evidence against 36-year-old professional soccer player Jerce Reyes Barrios.
She insisted US intelligence assessments “go beyond a single tattoo.”
In a letter posted on social media, Tobin said her client had sought asylum in the United States after being tortured for taking part in anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela.
In September 2024, Texas authorities published a report listing tattoos it said were characteristic of Tren de Aragua membership, including crowns, stars and weapons.
“Tren de Aragua has no identifying tattoo... some members of the gang are tattooed, others not,“ she told AFP.
“I was told that they went through a very strong vetting process, and that that will also be continuing in El Salvador,“ he said.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Thursday the government had hired a law firm in El Salvador to try and secure the migrants' release.
An estimated 770,000 Venezuelans live in the United States -- many under a protected status granted to citizens of dangerous countries, which Trump recently revoked.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Families say tattoos landed Venezuelan migrants in Salvadoran mega-jail )
Also on site :