After his deportation was briefly blocked by a Supreme Court docket order, 19-year-old Venezuelan migrant Alessandro Paredes spoke to ABC Information from a detention heart in Texas.
“This isn’t being performed by regulation, that is completely unlawful and it is out of the blue,” Paredes mentioned, recounting the tried deportation on Friday.
“We get grabbed within the morning, about 4 within the morning, and simply get taken right into a van. They tried to place us right into a airplane,” he mentioned from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Bluebonnet Detention Middle in Anson, Texas.
Paredes mentioned that earlier than arriving at an airport, the van he was in abruptly rotated and returned him and different detainees to Bluebonnet.
19-year-old Venezuelan migrant Alessandro Paredes spoke to ABC Information from an ICE detention heart in Texas.
ABC Information
In an announcement to ABC Information, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the order from the Supreme Court docket that blocked deportations from the Northern District and mentioned the White Home is assured the actions by the administration are lawful.
“President Trump promised the American folks to make use of all lawful measures to take away the specter of terrorist unlawful aliens, like members of TdA, from the USA. We’re assured within the lawfulness of the Administration’s actions and in in the end prevailing in opposition to an onslaught of meritless litigation introduced by radical activists who care extra in regards to the rights of terrorist aliens than these of the American folks,” Leavitt mentioned in her assertion.
Paredes claimed to ABC Information he and others have been “compelled to signal a paper” saying they’re a part of a gang. On Friday, the ACLU submitted a doc they are saying their purchasers at Bluebonnet acquired from immigration officers. The doc, titled “Discover and Warrant of Apprehension and Removing below the Alien Enemies Act,” says, “You’ve been decided to be… a member of Tren de Aragua.”
“We’ve got been compelled to signal a paper, proper right here, principally saying that we’re a part of a gang, that we’re a part of it, and so they’re forcing us to signal it,” Paredes mentioned.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland safety adviser, responded to a publish on X by a FOX Information reporter that features a record allegedly supplied by a DHS official of “suspected Venezuelan TdA gang members” detained in Texas that the Trump administration “was planning to deport earlier than SCOTUS stepped in.”
A Salvadoran soldier stands guard on the CECOT jail, in Tecoluca, El Salvador April 4, 2025.
Jose Cabezas/Reuters
The record included Paredes’ identify and picture and says that he’s a confirmed TdA member and says that he’s going through felony fees for “aggravated assault with a weapon, pointing, and presenting firearms at an individual.” The publish additionally contains photographs of Paredes’ tattoos of a cross and a clock.
“That is who the Democrats are preventing to maintain in your neighborhood,” Miller mentioned in response to the social media publish of the record.
A evaluation of court docket information discovered one cost in opposition to Paredes in South Carolina for “pointing and presenting firearms at an individual” in February. The case continues to be ongoing and Paredes is scheduled to have his second court docket look in August.
In response to WCIV, an ABC Information affiliate, Paredes turned himself in on the gun cost and was booked into Al Cannon Detention Middle in Charleston County, South Carolina in February. The ICE detainee locator confirms Paredes is presently at Bluebonnet Detention Middle.
Paredes’ mother instructed ABC Information in an announcement by their lawyer that she denies the allegation that her son is a member of TdA.
“My son is just 19 years previous,” the mom mentioned, who didn’t wish to be named. “He was an excellent pupil, a proficient soccer participant, and a loving son. He’s a religious Catholic. He carries his religion on his physique and in his coronary heart — he even had a big cross tattooed on his physique to mark his lifelong dedication to God.”
“He is not a terrorist,” she mentioned, including that she needs for her son to be despatched to Venezuela.
“Please don’t ship him to El Salvador — a rustic he has by no means recognized, the place he faces grave hazard and has no assist,” she added.
Salvadoran troopers stand guard, because the CECOT brand is seen, throughout a media tour on the Terrorism Confinement Middle (CECOT) jail, in Tecoluca, El Salvador April 4, 2025.
Jose Cabezas/Reuters
Earlier this month, SCOTUS lifted an injunction that barred deportations below the AEA and dominated that any particular person the administration sought to deport below the proclamation should be given due course of. The ACLU argued Friday that the Venezuelan migrants who’re being held in a detention heart in Texas are prone to deportation and haven’t had enough discover or sufficient time to problem their removals, violating the court docket’s requirement that the boys have “affordable time” to apply their due course of rights.When requested by ABC Information if he fears being deported to El Salvador, Paredes mentioned he’s “very scared” as a result of he and the opposite detainees should not from El Salvador.
“We’re very scared [that] everyone right here will get deported to El Salvador,” Paredes mentioned. “As a result of, to start with, we aren’t from there. Most individuals in right here received no felony information. Not even a ticket, nothing.”
“There’s underage folks,” Paredes added. “We even received disabled folks proper right here subsequent to me.”
Paredes mentioned he was not given any data on Friday and he nonetheless has not acquired solutions from the officers on the detention heart.
“They only inform us that they do not know something, and so they do not give us any type of data,” Paredes mentioned.
“We simply need justice, we’re people, we have now human rights,” Paredes added. “We simply wish to return to our nation.”
