Soccer player with tattoo logo his favorite team Real Madrid accused of being a gang member - sent to El Salvador Prison
This is why they can't show their homework. They cannot substantiate their claim that these are all gang members.
https://www.tiktok.com/@nbcnews/video/7485855696802680106
Reyes Barrios, who previously was a keeper for the Perijaneros Fútbol Club in the state of Zulia, was due for a hearing on April 17, 2025. He had been applying for political asylum, a case he had a plausible chance to win given his backstory. Reyes Barrios was not an economic migrant, but he had participated in two marches against the government of Nicolás Maduro in the context of 2024’s controversial presidential election. The United States has long pressured the Maduro government—which the U.S. does not officially recognize—to hold free and fair elections. The U.S. responded angrily when Venezuela’s Supreme Court, aligned with Maduro, kicked his leading opponent off the ballot, and multiple demonstrations throughout the country were held.
According to his attorney, Reyes Barrios marched in two demonstrations, one in February and one in March 2024, and was abducted off the street and taken to government security forces to an undisclosed location, where he was tortured, facing electrocution and suffocation.
Barrios said that his nephew left Venezuela in March, after his torture. In October 2023, the U.S. had offered Temporary Protective Status to Venezuelans in the United States, arguing that government repression in the country meant it was unsafe to return. “He spent several months working in Mexico waiting for his CBP One appointment,” Jair Barrios said. “In September of the same year, exactly on the 1st, he had his appointment to enter the United States.”
At his appointment, Barrios said, “he was detained under investigation for ‘suspicious tattoos’—that they say are related to Tren de Aragua.” Reyes Barrios’s detention began under the Biden administration.
The controversial Venezuelan gang uses a crown as part of its tattoos, and Reyes Barrios had a crown tattoo. According to his uncle, the tattoo was soccer-related. “It should be noted that Jerce is a soccer player, and most of his tattoos are related to his love for soccer and his family. For example, he has a crown on top of a soccer ball. This crown is associated with the Tren de Aragua criminal group. He found out about this when he was already detained in the U.S.”
His attorney, Linette Tobin, filed an affidavit with the court, saying the explanation for the crown is straightforward: It is the logo of Real Madrid, his favorite football club. According to his uncle, an attorney in the United States contacted the family and asked for reams of documentation to support his case, which the family sent to the attorney, including an affidavit from the tattoo artist. Tobin, in the affidavit, said Venezuelan records made clear Reyes Barrios had no criminal background and no gang ties and was indeed seeking genuine political asylum.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/venezuelan-professional-goaltender-rendition-deported-dhs