Family of Venezuelan migrant recently sent to El Salvador: 'It's the American horror'
Maiker Espinoza Escalona, his partner Yorely Bernal Inciarte and their one-year old baby entered the United States last year and requested asylum, hoping that after turning themselves in to authorities they would be released and allowed to begin their new life as a family.
But that would never happen. The three have been separated since they turned themselves in, their family told ABC News. Inciarte has been detained at a detention center in El Paso, Texas, the baby has been in government custody and Escalona is at the notorious prison CECOT in El Salvador.
Escalona, according to his family and the American Civil Liberties Union, had been detained in Texas since May 2024 and was transferred last week to Guantanamo. He was among 17 individuals who were sent to El Salvador on Sunday by the Trump administration under Title 8 authorities, according to a White House official.
The Trump administration accused Escalona of being a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, an accusation his family denies.
"They are liars," said Raida, Inciarte's mother, of the Trump administration. "I cannot believe that half of Venezuela is Tren de Aragua. That can't be."
"For them to be sent [to El Salvador] you have to investigate and prove they are what they are being accused of," Raida added in Spanish. "We're distraught, I don't wish this on anyone."
"DHS has thorough intelligence assessments to determine if an individual is a member of one of these vicious gangs," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News in a statement. "These terrorists are a threat to national security and the safety of Americans. The premise that these individuals are not gang members is based on faulty assumptions."
Last week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem went to CECOT and said in a video posted to X that the facility in El Salvador is "one of the tools in our toolkit" the administration uses against those who "commit crimes against Americans."
Noem praised the U.S government and El Salvador's "partnership" and called the individuals sent to CECOT "terrorists."
Raida told ABC News that she found out that Escalona was in El Salvador after she saw a video posted on social media by Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador.
"They were shaving his head," Raida said in tears. "They had him dressed in all white and he was on his knees."
Raida, who said she is taking care of Escalona and Inciarte's 6-year-old son in Venezuela, said she believes the couple were detained because of their tattoos.
"My daughter has a tattoo of the year I was born and the year her dad was born. She also has the name of her son and some flowers on her chest," Raida said. "Maiker is a tattoo artist and he would do her tattoos."
Marly, who is Escalona's sister, said her brother was also a barber and traveled to the U.S. for a better life.
"My brother is a 25-year-old guy, a dreamer, like all Venezuelans," Marly said in Spanish. "He loves cutting hair. He finished high school, he took courses in barbering and set up his barbershop in Venezuela. But things got a bit tough in Venezuela, so he emigrated to have a better life."
Marly provided ABC News with documents that appear to be from the Venezuelan government declaring to U.S. authorities that Escalona does not have a criminal record in his home country.
"He has no criminal record anywhere, nothing at all, he's completely clean," Marly said.
Marly told ABC News she wants the Trump administration to send her brother and his family back to Venezuela.
"There's the American dream they talk about, but it's the American horror," she said.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the ACLU, previously told ABC News he has serious concerns about what he called the government's "sudden allegations" against Escalona that precipitated him being sent to CECOT.
"He and others being sent to the Salvadoran prison must be given due process to test the government's assertions," Gelernt said.
Escalona filed a sworn declaration in early March in which he stated that he was not a gang member and asked the government not to send him to Guantanamo.
