Deported for Innocent Tattoos?
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, m
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