Immigration policies aren\u2019t just politics \u2014 they\u2019re personal. At HuffPost, we explore the human stories behind the headlines, reporting on how immigration laws impact real people and communities. Support this vital coverage by joining our membership program today.<\/a><\/p>\n Reyes Barrios, a 36-year-old professional soccer player and coach, was accused of gang affiliation on the basis<\/a> of seemingly no more than a Real Madrid-inspired tattoo and a \u201crock-and-roll\u201d hand signal that immigration officials found on social media. Being banished to one of the most notorious prisons in the world over a tattoo and common hand gesture encapsulated the cruelty and arbitrariness of the Trump administration\u2019s immigration agenda, and made Reyes Barrios one of the more well-known<\/a> people detained at CECOT.<\/p>\n On July 18, his 125th day at CECOT, Reyes Barrios and the other Venezuelan detainees were transferred back to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap<\/a>. The former CECOT detainees had been held incommunicado, with no access to loved ones or lawyers. The only information about conditions at CECOT came from glimpses of propaganda<\/a> videos<\/a> filmed<\/a> inside the prison and past reporting from human rights groups<\/a> and journalists<\/a> who have documented allegations of torture at CECOT. Now free, the former CECOT detainees are speaking out<\/a> about the abuse they endured from the U.S. and Salvadoran governments \u2014 while navigating a complicated series of safety considerations. <\/p>\n \u201cBoth the physical and mental abuse doled out by the officers made me think sometimes that I would never leave that place,\u201d Reyes Barrios said.<\/p>\n \u2018Welcome To Hell On Earth\u2019<\/p>\n Reyes Barrios left for the U.S. last year on April 1, traveling thousands of miles by land to reach the southern border. He hoped to find work in America to support his two young daughters and his father, who has glaucoma. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was all overland, risking my life,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Reyes Barrios followed all the rules. He signed up for an appointment on the CBP One app, a Biden-era platform that allowed people to schedule appointments at the U.S. border to pursue asylum. But at his appointment on Sept. 1, during President Joe Biden\u2019s tenure, he was taken into immigration custody. He was surprised he was detained. \u201cI didn\u2019t have any priors, no problems with anybody, and I tried to enter legally into the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A staffer in the private detention facility where he was detained asked about his tattoos and whether he had any gunshot or knife wounds. He has about 20 tattoos, most of which honor his family members. One, an image of a crown sitting atop a soccer ball, reminds him of his favorite soccer team, Real Madrid. His only scar is from when he had appendicitis, he told the interviewer.<\/p>\n \u201cI told him, \u2018I\u2019ve never been incarcerated,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cHe said, \u2018That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to investigate.\u2019 And I said, \u2018That\u2019s your right to investigate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not clear how much investigation occurred. Shortly after the interview, Reyes Barrios\u2019 blue prison clothing was replaced with orange garments, and he was placed in maximum security. He was asked to sign a letter linking him to Tren de Aragua, which he refused to do. <\/p>\n People in immigration court are not guaranteed legal representation, and Reyes Barrios was expected to navigate the confusing process on his own.<\/p>\n Linette Tobin, a private immigration attorney who takes asylum cases through the county of San Diego, came across Reyes Barrios\u2019 case in November. After reading over his intake information, she thought he had a strong asylum claim and offered to take on his case. \u201cI thought, \u2018This is a slam dunk,\u2019\u201d she said in an interview. <\/p>\n \u201cShe really fell out of heaven for me,\u201d Reyes Barrios said. <\/p>\n After submitting Venezuelan documents showing he had no criminal record, as well as letters of employment, a declaration from the tattoo artist who drew the image of the crown atop the ball, and documents explaining the meaning of the tattoo and the \u201crock-and-roll\u201d hand gesture, Reyes Barrios was eventually released from maximum custody and into general population. <\/p>\n The final hearing in his asylum case was set for April 17. \u201cWe were completely prepared. Everything had been submitted to the court. Everything was ready,\u201d Tobin previously told HuffPost.<\/p>\n But by March, Reyes Barrios started expressing concern, Tobin said. He had heard rumors that he and other Venezuelans might get sent to the U.S. military outpost at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, a place he knew nothing about, except that it is in Cuba. <\/p>\n On March 15, President Donald Trump invoked<\/a> the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority last used in World War II, to rapidly remove accused Tren de Aragua members from the U.S. That day, administration officials loaded Reyes Barrios and hundreds of other Venezuelan immigration detainees, handcuffed, onto planes to El Salvador, defying a federal judge<\/a> who ordered the government to halt the flights. That judge, Washington, D.C., District Judge James Boasberg, in April found cause to initiate contempt proceedings<\/a> against the administration \u2015 though an appeals court paused<\/a> those proceedings \u2015 and last week noted<\/a> the possibility of pursuing disciplinary proceedings against certain administration lawyers. On Monday, the administration filed a misconduct complaint<\/a> against the judge. <\/p>\n At first, \u201ceverybody was happy\u201d because they thought they were going to Venezuela, Reyes Barrios said of the people on the plane. It was only once they landed that they realized they were going to CECOT, a place Reyes Barrios knew as \u201cone of the most dangerous and strict prisons in all of Central America.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI became frozen for a second, and I started to cry,\u201d he said. \u201cI said to myself, \u2018This can\u2019t be.\u2019 My mind went blank.\u201d <\/p>\n People around the world have seen what happened next, thanks to propaganda videos<\/a> from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has described himself as the \u201cworld\u2019s coolest dictator<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n The men were hustled off the flight, manhandled by Salvadoran officials, shaved bald, herded into a crowded prison, and lined up in hunched-over seated positions, their heads bowed and their hands cuffed behind their backs. <\/p>\n \u201cI became frozen for a second, and I started to cry. I said to myself, \u2018This can\u2019t be.\u2019 My mind went blank.\u201d<\/p>\n – Jerce Reyes Barrios<\/p>\n Reyes Barrios\u2019 description of beatings and mistreatment at CECOT line up with the accounts of other detainees who have shared their stories publicly, including with NBC News<\/a>, ProPublica<\/a> and The Washington Post<\/a>. Some have recounted other heinous acts, including Andry Hernandez Romero, who has alleged<\/a> that CECOT guards groped him and forced him to perform oral sex while he was in solitary confinement. <\/p>\n Bukele\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n After landing in El Salvador, Reyes Barrios said, the American immigration agents who accompanied them on the plane told them they could voluntarily disembark, or else they would be forced to. Passengers in the plane\u2019s front rows hesitated, so both U.S. and Salvadoran forces \u201cbeat them and made them get off,\u201d Reyes Barrios said. He got off voluntarily. <\/p>\n Once off the plane, Salvadoran officials hit the detainees and put cuffs on their hands and feet \u2015 four total sets, at this point, and a fifth set was added to secure them to their bus seats.<\/p>\n \u201cThey made us all put our heads down, and we spent the entire ride on the bus that way,\u201d Reyes Barrios said. They rode for around 25 minutes before arriving at the notorious prison, where their heads were shaved and they were dressed in white prison uniforms. <\/p>\n \u201cThey put us on our knees again, they hit us, and they made us walk about 200 meters to \u2018Module 8,\u2019 crouching the whole time,\u201d he said, referring to the unit where he would spend the next four months. <\/p>\n There, he heard screams and saw blood, vomit and people passed out on the floor, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey arranged us on the floor, seated, with our foreheads touching the back of the next person,\u201d he recalled. A prison official told them, \u201cWelcome to hell on earth, where you\u2019ll be condemned to spend the rest of your lives; where I\u2019m going to make sure that you never eat chicken or meat again.\u201d<\/p>\n The United States\u2019 Venezuelan detainees were held separately from the thousands of Salvadorans imprisoned by their own government in CECOT. The wing consisted of multiple 20-by-10-meter cells with an 80-person capacity, each filled with four-story bunk bed towers, two toilets, and two water tanks, Reyes Barrios said. \u201cThe roof was like a cage, where the police would walk over top of us,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n The only way to tell whether it was day or night was by the food being served. Sometimes, detainees secretly stuck their heads out of the front of the cell, where they could see a little light poking through.<\/p>\n Reyes Barrios\u2019 time in CECOT was marked by psychological abuse and \u201ccountless\u201d beatings from guards, who hit, kicked, and used police batons on detainees while their hands were cuffed behind their backs, he said. <\/p>\n Once, after he showered at the incorrect time, guards punished Reyes Barrios by sending him to \u201cthe Island,\u201d a 2-by-1-meter cell with a cement bed and a toilet, he said. He spent about four or five hours there, alone in the darkness.<\/p>\n Guards also withheld clothing at times, forcing detainees to strip down to their underwear. \u201cFor those who behaved more poorly, it happened a lot,\u201d Reyes Barrios said.<\/p>\n The detainees were allowed no outside contact, save for two visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross. In ICRC\u2019s first visit, they spoke to only 50 detainees, not including himself, Reyes Barrios said. The second time, they spoke to each detainee and collected notes to loved ones. <\/p>\n Reyes Barrio has since confirmed his message reached home: \u201cSister, I\u2019m doing ok. Take good care of my daughters. Tell mom and dad I will be out of here soon.\u201d<\/p>\n In an email, a spokesperson for the ICRC\u2019s mission in El Salvador confirmed it had visited the Venezuelan detainees in CECOT twice, once in May and once in June, and said it had been able to contact \u201cmost\u201d of their families. <\/p>\n In May, the disgraced<\/a> former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) toured CECOT as part of a propagandistic taping for his show on the far-right One America News Network. For some detainees\u2019 families<\/a>, this footage was the only proof-of-life they\u2019d seen in the months since the Trump administration sent their loved ones to CECOT. <\/p>\n When HuffPost showed Reyes Barrio a picture of Gaetz, he recalled having seen him from afar. <\/p>\n \u201cI thought they were going to come get us out, at that time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It would be another 70 days before the Venezuelan CECOT detainees left the prison. <\/p>\n Life After CECOT<\/p>\n After moving hundreds of men to CECOT, Department of Homeland Security lawyers aggressively moved to erase the detainees from the immigration court system. Almost half of the Venezuelans sent to CECOT had unresolved immigration cases, and more than 60, including Reyes Barrios, had pending asylum claims, ProPublica reported<\/a>. But after the U.S. government disappeared them and they were unable to show up in court, DHS lawyers filed motions to dismiss \u2014 in some cases citing the fact that the individual was no longer in the country. <\/p>\n Immigration judges have granted dozens of these requests, effectively allowing the government to evade due process protections by disappearing people before they have their day in court. Tobin kept showing up in court on Reyes Barrios\u2019 behalf, even after he disappeared, and convinced the judge to administratively close<\/a> his case \u2014 which paused proceedings \u2014 rather than dismissing it altogether. <\/p>\n Asked to comment on the removals and conditions at CECOT, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an email, \u201cTren de Aragua and MS-13 are some of the most violent and ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth. They rape, maim, and murder for sport. President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow criminal gangs to terrorize American citizens.\u201d <\/p>\n McLaughlin did not provide evidence of the former CECOT detainees being members of either gang or having violent criminal convictions. \u201cOnce again the media is falling all over themselves to defend criminal illegal gang members. We hear far too much about gang members and criminals\u2019 false sob stories and not enough about their victims,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n On the morning of July 18, Reyes Barrios and the other Venezuelans in CECOT were loaded onto a bus. A man boarded their bus and addressed the detainees: \u201cMuchachos, here we are,\u201d Reyes Barrios recalled him saying. As soon as they heard his Venezuelan accent, they knew they were going home, he said. <\/p>\n They arrived at a naval base and boarded two planes to Venezuela. When they landed at the Sim\u00f3n Bolivar International Airport near Caracas, government officials were waiting for them on the tarmac. Reyes Barrios kneeled and thanked God. After a medical screening, he was brought to a hotel, where he called his family, who live far away in Machiques de Perij\u00e1, in the state of Zulia. He returned home days later and was surprised to find \u201calmost the whole town\u201d had assembled to welcome him.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know whether to shout, cry, or run,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n Two weeks after their release, the former CECOT detainees are still adjusting to life back home. After months of abuse in a prison they feared they might never leave, they have been thrust into the spotlight, asked to recount their most traumatic experiences to an international audience. They returned to Venezuela with none of their belongings. <\/p>\n For many, they were freed into a country they had previously fled. One former CECOT detainee told<\/a> The Washington Post that they were told to film a video thanking the Venezuelan government \u2014 and that if they fled again and were re-deported, they could be charged with treason. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/688cf043170000b42a2a0dce.jpeg\")
A March 16, 2025, photo provided by the Salvadoran government of detainees arriving at CECOT.<\/p>\n![\"Jerce](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/688cf247170000583f747b6f.jpg\")
Jerce Reyes Barrios, a soccer coach, reuniting with young soccer players after returning to Venezuela<\/p>\n