Carmen Bonilla has barely slept for almost two months, his mind full of terrifying thoughts about what may be happening to his son, whose dream of going to the United States for a better life became a wakefulness nightmare.
Andry Blanco Bonco, 40, was among the nearly 240 Venezuelan immigrants who were shipped on airplanes and taken to a mega prison in El Salvador on March 15, in a case that caused several legal battles and reached the Supreme Court.
Families and lawyers have told NBC News that they have not heard of men since then and that the United States and saving governments have given them little or no information. The Trump government action taken almost two months ago traveled the continents, leaving the loved ones broken and in the dark, they said. They said their family members were unfairly involved in the government’s agenda to deport mass immigrants.
“I don’t know anything about what is happening to him,” Bonilla said in Spanish at his home in Venezuela. “I don’t sleep. I lost weight. I observe the news about it makes me sick.”
Men is expected to be kept in El Salvador for at least one year in a penitentiary system that has faced various allegations of human rights abuse. El Salvador’s president said the one -year sentence is “renewable.”
“A whole year lost because he was unfairly sent to this prison?” Bonilla said through tears. “He was always a good son, father, brother and worker. He is not a criminal. It’s not fair.”
It is still unclear what will happen to men after a year in prison. Bonilla and other families are praying, somehow they are released before that, but the legal paths to it are still uncertain.
The Trump government said men are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, but shared little evidence of their allegations or explained why these men were chosen to be sent to El Salvador. In a proclamation on March 15, Trump said Tren de Aragua was appointed a terrorist organization and was “perpetuating, trying and threatening a predatory invasion or foray against US territory.” The internal security department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Some of the men’s families and lawyers strongly denied that their loved ones have ties to the gang and said they were unfairly targeted by tattoos that may be popular in Venezuela and are not related to Aragua’s Tren. They also say that migrants were denied due process and a chance to defend themselves from the accusations against them. Experts said tattoos are not closely linked to Aragua’s Tren affiliation.
The United States government did not disclose a list of Venezuelan men who were taken, but their names were reported by CBS News. A New York Times investigation found that most men have no criminal records in the United States or the region and that very few of them seem to have any documented evidence that connects them to the gang.
Blanco Bonilla was living in Texas and seeking asylum when immigration authorities arrested him in February, after an employee interrupted him in his cousin’s immigration appointment and asked his tattoos. He was an engineer in Venezuela, but recently worked as a delivery man in the United States to survive and support his family in his home country, his mother said. He used to call her every day he could. Now she hasn’t heard his voice for almost two months and has no idea when she will hear from him again.
“We don’t know if he is eating. How he is feeling. What he is going through,” said Blanco Bonilla’s sister Angy Blanco Bonilla. “We ask God for a sign that he is fine. Having no information is what hurts us most.”
Some of the Venezuelan men had cases of open immigration, including asylum related, while others had deportation orders, according to lawyers who represented them.
“How did they end up in El Salvador?” He asked Martin Rosenow, a Miami lawyer who represents one of the Venezuelan men, Franco José Caraballo Tiapa.
Caraballo Tiapa, 26, barber and father of two, was in the United States in search of asylum because of political persecution related to his defense against the current Venezuelan government And there’s no criminal history, Rosenow said. He had been released to the United States with his wife before being detained after a routine immigration appointment in February.
“The fact that, in mass, these individuals were sent without due process to another country, it has never happened before,” Rosenow said.
What was alarming to Rosenow and a group of lawyers representing men is as “the Trump government casually dismissed the possibility of bringing these people back,” he said.
Even for those who had orders of removal against them, orders should be returned to Venezuela, not sent to a different country, lawyer Natalie Cadwalader-Schulheis said. It represents three Venezuelan men who had removal orders to their home country and were sent to El Salvador. All men entered the United States legally through a Biden era application that established commitments to migrants to immigration authorities, she said, adding that men had no criminal convictions.
“I hope people will recognize that this is a really dangerous precedent to settle. We are seeing people disappearing by the government to a torture prison in another country,” Cadwalader said.
Kilmar Embego Garcia, a man from Salvadoran who was also taken to prison in El Salvador, despite the order of a judge who prevented him from being sent there, became a center of legal battles related to deportations. His lawyers brought an action against the federal government seeking his return to the United States.
The Trump government accused Vugo Garcia of being a member of the gang MS-13, which his lawyer and family deny. He was also subject to the order of a judge from which he could not be returned to El Salvador, based on evidence presented in court that he would be the target of gang members.
The Supreme Court weighed and ordered the Trump government to facilitate its return.
President Donald Trump said in an interview with ABC News last week that “could” that Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States with a call, even if the government had previously argued in the court that the government had no capacity to recover it.
“If he were the gentleman you say it is, I would do that. But he is not,” Trump said in the interview.
Rosenow responded to the president’s comment. “It’s very discouraging for him to say that he has authority. It also shows a kind of flagrant disrespect for the Supreme Court order to facilitate his return.”
“The whole struggle has to do with due process. It must be entitled to due process, as the Constitution determines,” he said. Lawyers of the Justice Department recognized in the judicial documents that the deportation was a mistake because an immigration judge decided that it could not be sent back to its native El Salvador. The lawyers argued that Vague Garcia and the other men were denied due process and the chance to defend themselves in court.
Trump invoked the law of alienating enemies in March after declaring the gang of Venezuela Tren de Aragua an invasive force. Immigration authorities used this act to deport hundreds of people without immigration hearings, claiming they are members of the gang. Many ended up in the mega-prison in El Salvador, known for their adverse conditions and reported abuse.
On May 1, a judge appointed by Trump rejected the invocation of the law by the 1798 government to deport Venezuelans who claims that they are members of Tren de Aragua. The Supreme Court also paused about deportations under the law in April, as buses with Venezuelans were going to an airport.
In Venezuela, a group of mothers has been closely following the case of Abrego Garcia.
“If they bring Kilmar back, there is still hope that they can also bring the more than 200 Venezuelan men,” said Bonilla. “But when I see Trump talking like this, I lose more hope every day.”
Austria Pulgar, 65, whose son is also in El Salvador, said Trump’s latest comments “are so unfair. Venezuelan men have no reason to be there. They misused people and sent them to El Salvador without the chance to defend themselves.” She denies that her son has gang bonds.
“All I do is cry. I miss my son so much,” she said in Spanish from her home in Venezuela. “I am afraid it gives me a heart attack.”
Frizgeralth of Jesús Cornejo Pulgar, 25, entered the United States with his girlfriend in June 2024, his mother said. His girlfriend was released in the country, but his mother said that Corno Pulgar was arrested because he had a floral tattoo on his neck. He was looking for asylum and remained in detention until he was sent to El Salvador, she said.
Like many families, she found that her son was taken to El Salvador when he recognized his face in videos and propaganda photos released by SalvadoRenho Nayib Bukele.
“This photo broke my soul,” she said.
For the families of men already sent to El Salvador, the situation seems terrible and they pray that there is still a chance that their loved ones can be released.
“I’m desperate,” said Corno Pulgar. “I just want my son to return safe and sound.”