{"id":805,"date":"2025-04-30T19:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/?p=805"},"modified":"2025-05-02T22:46:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T22:46:56","slug":"desperate-inmates-form-message-to-prevent-being-deported-to-el-salvador-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/30\/desperate-inmates-form-message-to-prevent-being-deported-to-el-salvador-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Desperate inmates form message to prevent being deported to El Salvador prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"A\t<\/div>
A drone captured the men arranging themselves to spell S.O.S. on the dirt at Bluebonnet detention centre, Texas (Picture: Paul Ratje\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People detained at an immigration centre in the US formed a human SOS in a cry for help.<\/p>\n

A drone flying above the Anson, Texas, saw around 30 men forming the message before they’re shipped to an El Salvador prison so brutal it has sparked unverified conspiracy theories<\/a> of death camps and torture.<\/p>\n

Inmates get no visits, no daylight, and little prospect of release<\/a>, once locked in 70-person cells at the maximum security CECOT prison, branded ‘Guantan\u00e1mo on steroids’.<\/p>\n

Built to house alleged members and associates of Salvadoran gangs, it has now become central to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n

More than 200 people have already been deported there from the US, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia<\/a>, a Salvadoran national granted protected status in the US in 2019.<\/p>\n

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class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-headline\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder\">\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-headline\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\twindow.addEventListener(‘metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded’, function(data) {<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tif (typeof(data.detail) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === ‘undefined’) {<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\treturn;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t}<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar player = data.detail.carousel.el_;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar container = player.closest(‘.metro-video-player’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar placeholder = container.querySelector(‘.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tcontainer.removeChild(placeholder);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tcontainer.classList.add(‘metro-video-player–related-videos-loaded’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t});<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>He was seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/02\/trump-sent-father-el-salvador-prison-mistake-now-cant-get-back-22832981\/\">accused of playing a ‘prominent role in MS-13’ after picking up his son<\/a> in Maryland.<\/p>\n<p>The accusation wasn’t true, and the US has since admitted it illegally deported him.<\/p>\n<p>But the Trump administration has said it can’t get him back, and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele won’t return him.<\/p>\n<p>‘Oopsie… Too late’, Bukele wrote on X, formerly Twitter. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"718\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-23004049 lazyload\" alt=\"El Salvador?s CECOT prison\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SEI_249464126-bb7a.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>CECOT is barely visible from the public road several kilometres away (Picture: Metro)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"485\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-23003964 lazyload\" alt=\"Mandatory Credit: Photo by Rodrigo Sura\/EPA-EFE\/REX\/Shutterstock (14147227f) Aerial view of the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, 12 October 2023. The Salvadoran mega-prison, inaugurated last February to house 40,000 gang members convicted or detained under an exceptional regime, is operating at 30% of its capacity and has not registered any deaths inside, according to prison authorities. Mega-jail for Salvadoran gangs, Tecoluca, El Salvador - 12 Oct 2023\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SEI_249463125-a8a9.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Prisoners are kept indoors at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), which has a capacity of 40,000 (Picture: Rodrigo Sura\/EPA-EFE\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That’s a fate feared by 31 men who assembled themselves in the shape of S.O.S. in the yard of Bluebonnet detention centre in Texas on Monday. It was captured by a drone flown by Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of Venezuelan detainees there were this month accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump has claimed is carrying out ‘irregular warfare’ and ‘hostile actions’ in the US.<\/p>\n<p>Seven of their families have denied these claims of gang membership.<\/p>\n<p>Among them is Jeferson Escalona, 19, who was a police officer in Venezuela. He believes US authorities saw pictures of him making hand signs common in Venezuela when they seized his phone.<\/p>\n<p>It wouldn’t be the first time US officials have seen gang signs where there aren’t any. British man Pete Belton, 44, was shocked to find <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/11\/a-british-mans-tattoo-wrongly-linked-a-dangerous-venezuelan-gang-22893807\/\">a picture of his clockface tattoo<\/a>, showing the time his daughter was born, in a document used to identify gang members.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"746\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-23003902 lazyload\" alt=\"Jeferson Escalona Hernandez, a 19-year-old Venezuelan migrant detained in Texas, takes a selfie at work at an events company in Dallas, Texas, U.S., in this handout picture taken on 2024. Ibeth Hernandez\/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SEI_249422464-2871-e1746039309776.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>A selfie taken by Jeferson Escalona Hernandez, 19, while working at an events company in Dallas, Texas, in 2024 (Picture: Ibeth Hernandez via Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>‘I fear for my life here’, said Escalona, who was denied his request to voluntarily return to Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p>‘They’re making false accusations about me. I don’t belong to any gang.’<\/p>\n<p>Trump has revived a 1798 law –<a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/03\/15\/donald-trump-brings-back-deeply-shameful-law-last-used-in-world-war-two-22733956\/\"> last used to detain 120,000 Japanese people<\/a> without trial during <a data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/world-war-two\/\">World War Two<\/a> – to speed up deportations of alleged gang members.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled to the US in recent years, escaping economic collapse and an authoritarian crackdown by President Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n<p>But Trump has branded this an ‘invasion’. His use of the Alien Enemies Act allows him to bypass immigration courts, despite some of the detainees having dates set.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"431\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-23003916 lazyload\" alt=\"In this undated photo provided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in April 2025, a man identified by Jennifer Vasquez Sura as her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is forced to sit with other prisoners by guards in the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland via AP)\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SEI_246086443-9369.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>A man identified as Kilmar Abrego Garcia being forced to sit with other prisoners at CECOT (Picture: U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Diover Millan, a 24-year-old construction worker with no criminal record, has an asylum hearing on May 1.<\/p>\n<p>‘If he gets removed under the Alien Enemies Act, then that court date doesn’t exist, he’ll never have that court date’, a US official explained in a recording heard by Reuters earlier last week.<\/p>\n<p>This lack of opportunity to appeal their case, or have the accusations tested, is alarming for those fearing deportation to CECOT.<\/p>\n<p>In the recording, one said: ‘If I don’t have a criminal record in the three countries in which I have lived in, how are they going to send me to El Salvador?’<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked their deportations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><strong><strong>Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:webnews@metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\">webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this, <\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A drone captured the men arranging themselves to spell S.O.S. on the dirt at Bluebonnet detention centre, Texas (Picture: Paul … <a href=\"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/30\/desperate-inmates-form-message-to-prevent-being-deported-to-el-salvador-prison\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span class=\"more-button\">Continue Reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Desperate inmates form message to prevent being deported to El Salvador prison<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":812,"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesrvmx.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}