Deported for Innocent Tattoos?
People are allegedly being classified as gang members for tattoos of crowns, clocks, and soccer logos.
When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Andry Hernandez in 2024, it deemed him a suspected member of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. Hernandez didn't claim to be associated with the gang. ICE didn't report that Hernandez had any "observed and known" contact with Tren de Aragua members. It didn't list "official records, media reports, and correspondence," "intelligence information received from other agencies," or "validation" or "confirmation" by "law enforcement, Corrections, or sending jurisdiction" suggesting that Hernandez was tied to Tren de Aragua.
Instead, ICE officials flagged Hernandez as a potential Tren de Aragua associate based on two of his tattoos: the words mom and dad, topped with crowns, on each wrist.
Here are the tattoos that ICE declared were evidence that Andry, a gay make-up artist who came to a port of entry seeking asylum from Venezuela, was a member of the vicious gang "Tren de Aragua."
I am not making this up. This is it. "Mom" and "Dad" with crowns over them. pic.twitter.com/Y3J2gnm79c
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) March 30, 2025
"The crown has been found to be an identifier for a Tren de Aragua gang member," noted ICE officials. The tattoos—and subsequent Tren de Aragua label—seem to be why Hernandez was one of over 200 Venezuelans sent to a brutal Salvadoran prison on March 15.
"The Trump administration has said it verified that all the Venezuelan deportees have connections to Tren de Aragua," reported CBS News. But family members and lawyers for some of the deportees have questioned the government on how it reached those conclusions—especially the way it assessed deportees' tattoos.
A new court filing by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed a document that the government is allegedly using "to determine whether Venezuelan noncitizens are members of Tren de Aragua and subject to summary removal under the Alien Enemies Act," said ACLU attorney Oscar Sarabia Roman in a sworn statement. The "alien enemy validation guide" notes that migrants who score eight points or higher on the provided checklist "are validated as members" of Tren de Aragua and thus subject to arrest and removal under the Alien Enemies Act. "Tattoos denoting membership/loyalty" to the gang is a category worth four points.
According to the document, other Tren de Aragua identifiers might include displaying certain logos, making certain hand signs, or wearing certain clothing. A Homeland Security Investigations document submitted by the ACLU lists "high-end urban street wear," Michael Jordan's basketball jersey, and "sports attire from U.S. professional sports teams with Venezuelan nationals on them" as Tren de Aragua identifiers.
When The Independent's Andrew Feinberg asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about the document, she at first said it's "not true" that tattoos and clothing alone could get someone classified as a Tren de Aragua member. "According to this document, it is," Feinberg countered. "Have you talked to the agents who have been putting their lives on the line to detain these foreign terrorists?" Leavitt shot back. "There is a litany of criteria that they use to ensure that these individuals qualify as foreign terrorists….Shame on you and shame on the mainstream media for trying to cover for these individuals."
The Trump administration invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in March to target Tren de Aragua, which it claims has "perpetrated irregular warfare within" the United States. It relied on that law to conduct immediate deportations of over 100 people it deemed members of the gang, denying them due process. That makes it all the more concerning that federal officials might be relying on such subjective criteria to decide whether someone should be deported.
Attorneys for some of the men sent to El Salvador have argued that American immigration officials misinterpreted their clients' tattoos prior to their deportation. One claimed that her client, Jerce Reyes Barrios, was accused of being a Tren de Aragua member in part because of his tattoo paying homage to the Real Madrid soccer team. Another argued that immigration officials flagged his client as having "gang-related tattoos," while noting that his client's tattoos are of a rose, a clock, and a crown with his son's name. One attorney claimed that ICE may have falsely accused his client of gang membership because of a crown tattoo—though he described the tattoo as "a tribute to his grandmother whose date of death appears at the base of the crown."
Hernandez worked as a makeup artist at a state-sponsored news channel in his native Venezuela, where, as a gay man, "he faced constant discrimination because of his sexual orientation," said his attorney Paulina Reyes in a sworn statement. Station employees "were forced to promote" pro–Nicolas Maduro "content in their social media and to vote in favor of issues supported by that government." Hernandez refused. His producers "attacked him and threatened to further harm him if he did not comply," said Reyes, and "armed groups operating at the behest of the government" began to follow him.
After he eventually fled Venezuela and entered the United States legally via a CBP One app appointment, Hernandez was "questioned about his tattoos" and sent to an ICE detention center in southern California, explained Reyes. He was "pursuing asylum when he was abruptly moved to Texas and removed under the Alien Enemies Act," per Reyes. His "crown tattoos are the only basis of the government's assertion, in its filing, that he is connected to Tren de Aragua."
It's certainly possible that many of the men sent to El Salvador posed genuine risks to public safety or had demonstrable ties to a gang. But Hernandez "did not have the opportunity to contest the evidence submitted against him before he was forcibly removed," said Reyes. If he was truly a safety risk and a Tren de Aragua associate, then the government should have been willing and able to prove that in court. The shadowy, fast-tracked removal process the government opted for instead makes it all the more likely that it swept up innocent people.
