The U.S. government decided it was time for some spring cleaning—only instead of dusting off bookshelves, they shipped 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador’s most infamous mega-prison.
The White House billed these unfortunate souls as terrorists and heinous monsters, claiming they belonged to Venezuela’s notorious Tren de Aragua gang.
But their families say otherwise. And now, one mom is living every parent’s nightmare—her son has vanished into what she calls “an abyss with no rescue team.”
Mirelis Casique, mother of Francisco Javier García Casique, who last spoke to her on Saturday morning from a detention center in Laredo, Texas. He casually mentioned he’d be deported but didn’t know where he was headed.
Shortly after this cryptic goodbye, his name disappeared from the U.S. immigration website.
Casique eventually spotted her son in photos released by the Salvadoran government showing freshly shaved heads and matching white outfits—a look that screams prison couture. She recognized him by his tattoos, build, and complexion, even though his face wasn’t visible.
The whole ordeal started when President Donald Trump struck a deal with El Salvador’s own superhero-in-a-suit, President Nayib Bukele.
Bukele agreed to house the Venezuelan deportees while Uncle Sam foots the bill. It sounds like the setup to a buddy cop movie, except there are no buddies, no cops, and definitely no happy ending for the deportees.
Adding fuel to the fire, Venezuela’s government slammed the move as illegal, accusing the U.S. of using an obscure law from 1798—the Alien Enemies Act—to justify the deportation.
Meanwhile, relatives back home are left wondering how someone who went to the U.S. seeking asylum ended up in handcuffs on foreign soil.
Casique insists her son isn’t part of any gang; his tattoos feature peaceful imagery and family names, not gang insignias. Apparently, having ink makes you guilty until proven innocent.
And then there’s Mr. Bukele, gleefully announcing that the deportees will spend at least a year in his “Zero Idleness” program, which involves forced labor and workshops. Sure, it sounds productive, but it’s basically prison reform theater.
This isn’t the first rodeo for Team Trump when it comes to targeting Venezuelans. Last month, another group was sent to Guantánamo Bay under similar accusations of gang ties.
Relatives denied those claims too, leaving us all scratching our heads over whether anyone actually checked if these guys were criminals before shipping them off.
Meanwhile, Francisco’s story reads like a tragic telenovela. After fleeing Venezuela’s economic collapse, he worked in Peru for years to support his family.
Then came the perilous trek north, during which he fell off a train in Mexico and got injured. Once in the U.S., he turned himself in at the border, hoping for asylum. Instead, immigration officers zeroed in on his tattoos, slapped a label on him, and threw him into detention for two months.
A judge eventually ruled he wasn’t dangerous, releasing him with an ankle monitor. Until, of course, poof—he vanished again.
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