Jerce Reyes Barrios was born in Venezuela and quickly fell in love with soccer, playing it frequently throughout his youth.
Upon entering adolescence and adulthood, Barrios continued pursuing his dreams by playing soccer professionally. Afterward, he became an inspiring coach for younger Venezuelans aspiring to play soccer professionally like he did.
However, in Feb. 2024, protests in Venezuela erupted. After Nicholas Maduro, the president of Venezuela’s regime, declared victory in fraudulent elections. Barrios took a brave stand and protested against Maduro. However, this came at a cost.
Barrios was arrested and extrajudicially taken to a clandestine building to be tortured by Maduro’s regime with methods such as electric shocks and waterboarding.
After being released, Barrios had the chance to flee Venezuela’s dictatorship through the US asylum system and sought to live a free life in the United States of America. The U.S., a country that prides itself on its reputation as one of the world’s most resilient democracies, is distinguished by its strict adherence to the rule of law and the protection of individual liberty.
In the United States, the government has to give its people due process rights, allowing them to stand trial. Barrios dreamed of going there because he thought that in America, he’d finally be a free man.
In Sept. 2024, Barrios made an asylum request through the Customs and Border Patrol App. In Dec. 2024, his status was accepted and he awaited his court case to show evidence of his persecution and clean record.
Barrios, a refugee, was now at an immigration detention facility in California due to an accusation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of being part of a gang based on a tattoo. While there, he awaited his court case, which was scheduled for April 17, 2025. However, in early March 2025, ICE, under orders from the Trump Administration, transferred him to Texas without informing his attorney.
Despite lacking sufficient evidence, the Trump administration further accused Barrios of being a part of a Venezuelan gang called Tren De Aragua. The accusation was based on a tattoo with a symbol that Barrios had and a social media post where he made a certain hand gesture.
This is a part of a broader pattern of wrongful deportations, including those of American citizens. The tattoo was of a soccer ball with a crown on top, symbolizing the Spanish soccer team, Real Madrid, and the hand gesture meant “I love you” in sign language.
The Trump administration had previously classified Tren De Aragua, the drug gang, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and accused them of invading the United States. The administration then argued that Tren De Aragua and the Venezuelan government were one and the same, allowing it to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Barrios and hundreds of other Venezuelan refugees without due process.
Judge Boesberg, who Republican President George W. Bush appointed, blocked the Trump administration’s flights, calling for the refugees to be returned to the United States. Regardless, the Trump administration proceeded with the deportations.
As of now, Barrios, despite having no criminal record, is in another authoritarian leader’s prison in El Salvador. El Salvadorian authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele runs gigantic prisons, which mainly hold gang members but also journalists and civil society members.
In Bukele’s prisons, inmates are susceptible to electric shock torture, severe beatings, forced labor, and waterboarding. Bukele also said he would imprison American citizens whom the administration chooses to deport, which likely violates the 5th and 8th Amendments.
This sparked a contentious debate in the U.S. media, with political pundits on the right defending the administration. For example, Fox News, a Trump-allied media platform, brought on White House Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller, who defended the administration.
Miller stated, “These individuals posed a direct and present threat to the security of the American people; they are part of a now-designated foreign terrorist organization.” This statement accuses Barrios and several other deportees of terrorism. However, no court has corroborated that accusation, and sworn declarations have contradicted Miller’s narrative.
On the other hand, Trump’s conservative opponents in the media also made statements. Tim Miller, a former campaign advisor to Jeb Bush and a critic of Trump, went on his Bulwark podcast, saying, “I’m enraged … He was fleeing oppression, fleeing communism, trying to come to this country, trying to come here legally, as so many had done since fucking 1776, since before 1776. How did a fucking Venezuelan fleeing communism get put on a plane to El Salvador to go to that goddamn dystopia torture camp?” He expressed anger at what he thought was a betrayal of what this country stands for.
Meanwhile, leftwing media pundit, Rachel Maddow said, “In his eagerness to demonstrate progress on his core campaign promise to deport immigrants, Trump appears to be risking violations of court directives by continuing deportation flights even at the expense of any due process or transparency about who he is deporting and why,” expressing her belief that the president’s actions were impulsive and came at the expense of constitutional principles and transparency.
Other politicians have also made several statements, with Vice President JD Vance tweeting, “There were violent criminals and rapists in our country. Democrats fought to keep them here. President Trump deported them,” doubling down on President Trump’s campaign rhetoric essentializing all immigrants as rapists and criminals. This narrative is being perpetuated in order to justify expanding executive power through the Alien Enemies Act and the Insurrection Act, which is currently under review for invocation, at the expense of individual liberty.
Valentina Gomez, a far-right up-and-coming candidate planning to run for congress in Texas, replied to Vice President JD Vance in a tweet stating, “This is cheaper than a deportation.” The tweet showed a picture of her shooting a dummy tied to a chair, calling for the United States to start extrajudicially killing immigrants without due process to save money. Such actions violate the 5th, 8th, 4th, and 14th Amendments.
On the left, centrist Democrat Gregory Meeks said, “Sending Venezuelans back to a dictatorship under the guise of national security is reckless and undermines our commitment to human rights and due process.” A technocratic statement about what he believes is the undermining of human rights.
In addition, far-left Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said, “It should frighten every American, whether you are a conservative or a progressive, that you have a president who doesn’t respect our constitution,” primarily drawing attention to Trump’s defying Judge Boesberg.
Finally, several sworn declarations were issued by attorneys, family members, and people who worked within the Department of Homeland Security. This proves that several people, including Barrios, had clean records and were not criminals nor part of Tren De Aragua.
Barrios is one of the 48% of people the Trump administration has detained or deported so far who have had no criminal record. These individuals had their due process rights ignored, including a 10-year-old girl recovering from cancer who is an American citizen.
