MIAMI (AP) — Franco Caraballo called his wife on Friday night in a state of distress. Earlier that day, the 26-year-old barber and many other Venezuelan migrants detained at a federal facility in Texas were clad in white attire, handcuffed, and escorted onto a plane. With no knowledge of their destination, Caraballo was overwhelmed with fear. A day later, his name vanished from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee search.
Johanny Sánchez, Caraballo’s wife, was informed on Monday that he was among over 200 Venezuelan immigrants transported to El Salvador over the weekend. They are now held in a high-security prison on allegations by the Trump administration of being part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Sánchez vehemently denies her husband’s involvement in any gang activities and struggles to comprehend the accusation.
The abrupt flights organized by U.S. immigration authorities created chaos among frightened families as hundreds of immigrants disappeared from ICE’s online tracking system. Some were located in a sprawling prison in El Salvador where visitation, recreation, and education are prohibited. The U.S. government has paid $6 million to El Salvador to detain these individuals, many of whom are Venezuelan. The Venezuelan government rarely accepts deportees from the U.S., leaving families clueless about their loved ones’ whereabouts.
Xiomara Vizcaya, a 46-year-old Venezuelan, expressed her distress over her missing son, Ali David Navas Vizcaya, who had been in U.S. detention since early 2024. He informed his mother late Friday night that he feared deportation to Venezuela or Mexico. Strangely, his name no longer appears in ICE’s system.
Since the collapse of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy in 2013, nearly 8 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland. Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions during the Biden administration, more Venezuelans have sought refuge in the U.S. However, on Saturday, President Donald Trump announced the utilization of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, enabling the deportation of noncitizens without legal recourse. This move has garnered support from many conservatives who applaud the administration’s tough stance on immigration.
The Trump administration claims to be utilizing the Alien Enemies Act to expel alleged Tren de Aragua members, citing an invasion threat without substantiating gang affiliation allegations. Despite admitting that some individuals sent to El Salvador lack criminal records, U.S. officials maintain that they are all suspected gang members.
On February 3, Caraballo visited an ICE office in Dallas for a routine asylum check-in, as he had been doing for months. His wife questioned why a gang member would willingly appear at a federal law enforcement office amid a crackdown under the Trump administration that has instilled fear in immigrants nationwide.
“We followed the law,” emphasized Caraballo.
“We followed the law as instructed and never missed any meetings with authorities,” said Sánchez, who is currently in the U.S. working to secure her husband’s release. Sánchez mentioned that her husband, whom she married in Texas in 2024, has a clean record in the U.S. and presented a Venezuelan government document to confirm his clean criminal history there. She believes he was falsely accused of being associated with Tren de Aragua due to a tattoo shaped like a clock commemorating his daughter’s birthday from a previous relationship. “Although he has many tattoos, it should not be a reason for discrimination,” she expressed.
Sánchez shared that she and her husband left Venezuela in 2023 with only $200 and spent the next three months living in public squares, scavenging from trash cans, and relying on the kindness of fellow migrants as they traveled north. She believed their sacrifices would be worthwhile, as her husband, who had been a barber since the age of 13, hoped for a fresh start in the U.S., escaping the poverty and oppressive politics under Nicolas Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.
In response to the situation, the Venezuelan government condemned the extraditions, labeling them as “kidnappings” and calling on people to demonstrate in Caracas on Tuesday to demand that detainees in El Salvador be returned to Venezuela. Jorge Rodriguez, Maduro’s lead negotiator with the U.S., encouraged Venezuelan expatriates in the U.S. to come back home, stating that the American dream had become a “Salvadoran nightmare.”
Sánchez resonates with this sentiment, expressing her desire to depart from the U.S. once she reunites with her husband. “We left Venezuela seeking a brighter future. We never anticipated that things would worsen.”
