” player=”SPdDOYds” platform=”jw-player” playlist=”Toq2ZZoq” placement=”true” /]
The Department of Homeland Security is hitting back at the viral claims that a Venezuelan soccer player was deported to El Salvador after he was mistakenly identified as a member of Tren de Aragua.
The feds say they’re “confident” he’s a paid-up gang member of the violent Venezuelan prison gang.
Jerce Reyes Barrios was in the US as a professional soccer player and refugee of Venezuelan’s communist regime, immigration attorney Linette Tobin said in a recent court filing.
Tobin claims he was wrongly sent to El Salvador after President Trump invoked the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a hearing.
After he entered the US, Barrios was accused by immigration agents of being a member of Tren de Aragua due to his tattoos and social media posts, said Tobin.
She claims that the tattoo in question features a crown atop a soccer ball with a rosary and the Spanish word for God — similar to the logo for the Spanish soccer club Real Madrid.
“He has never been arrested or charged with a crime. He has a steady employment record as a soccer player, as well as a soccer coach for children and youth,” Tobin said in her filing.
Tobin also pointed out his social media photo, which she said DHS alleged showed him flashing a Tren de Aragua gang sign. But she argued the gesture “means ‘I love you’ in sign language and is commonly used as a Rock&Roll symbol.”
However, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLauglin said that the feds’ determination that Barrios’ was a gang member goes “beyond a single tattoo” and that they “are confident” in their findings.
She said Barrios was in the US illegally, adding that his tattoos “are consistent with those indicating” Tren de Aragua membership.
She also said his social media posts indicate he’s a member of the violent prison gang, which operates in numerous US states — including New York.
Tobin argued that Barrios fled Venezuela after he was detained and tortured last year for protesting the Maduro regime.
He later entered the US using the now-defunct CBP One phone application and was detained by ICE in September 2024.
Barrios’ name was listed on a leaked document naming the deportees removed to El Salvador, according to CBS News.
Tobin didn’t respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
While in the US, Barrios applied for asylum, a deportation pause and additional protections, said Tobin. His final immigration hearing was scheduled for next month, according to the court filing.
Tobin said her client was deported without anyone notifying her or Barrios’ family.
The Trump admin transported more than 260 illegal migrants, 238 of which are alleged gangbangers, to El Salvador’s notorious mega prison on Saturday, when they were handed off to armed commandos with their heads down and hands and ankles in shackles, defying US District Judge James Boasberg order to turn the planes around.
Boasberg ordered the administration to immediately halt deportations and to turn around the previously-departed flights that left under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which was last used during World War II to hold Japanese, German and Italian immigrants in internment camps.
The leaked list of the one-way passengers also included the name of baby-faced alleged Tren de Aragua gangbanger Nixon Azuaje-Perez, 19, who was accused of trying to hide the evidence of an attempted murder in Aurora, Colorado, over the summer.
Azuaje-Perez, entered the US in 2023 using CBP One alongside his alleged gangbanger brother.
Also listed is Henry Javier Vargas, 32, who was collared at an apartment complex taken over by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colorado, in January.
While in Colorado, he was charged with extortion and had been identified by the feds as a member of Tren de Aragua.
His family identified him in a dramatic video of the deportees’ arrival to El Salvador.
But his family argued that Vargas was merely a victim of a scam, according to the Miami Herald.
Trump signed an executive order upon entering office designating Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, allowing more federal resources to arrest and deport the Venezuelan gangbangers.
Read the full article here
