Thread by @David_J_Bier

Cato published my review of the ~240 Venezuelans the US government renditioned 2 months ago to Salvador’s notorious prison. We identified FIFTY who came legally, never violated any immigration law, but are imprisoned at the US government’s request and at US taxpayer expense.

When I started researching their methods of an entry, I thought finding 4 such cases would be an unbelievable crime and scandal. In the end, it’s apparent that at least four DOZEN were legal immigrants who came with advanced permission. cato.org/blog/50-venezu…

We identified 2 dozen parolees who entered at ports of entry, another 21 came legally with a CBP One appointment and were immediately detained, 4 refugees who the government determined faced persecution abroad, and one person who entered with a tourist visa.

50 is the minimum # of legal immigrants in the Trump gulag b/c only 174 of the 240 had any info online, likely b/c many families are afraid to speak out or don’t know their loved one is incarcerated. Of those whose method of entry was mentioned, 50 came legally, 40 illegally.

An approximate 50-50 ratio actually makes sense b/c half of the Venezuelans who came in the last 2 years came legally. It also matches a survey of 50 families done by Reuters a few months ago. So it’s possible that in fact, over a HUNDRED came legally.

We can't fully profile these legal immigrants b/c they were disappeared w/o warning and are being held incommunicado. They’ve been unable to speak to ANYONE outside the torture prison for 2 months, and the US govt is saying it’d be INSANE to release any info about them:

Still, DHS continues to slander & lie about them, calling them all “illegal aliens.” When confronted with the lies, DHS lies more. For instance, it says Ricardo “entered illegally at a port of entry via the CBP One.” It litearlly just describes a legal entry as "illegal"

It says Jerce Reyes Barrios, an ex-professional soccer player, “was in the US illegally.” It's undisputed that he came LEGALLY, DHS denied him status b/c of his tattoos. Here's DHS: “We’re doing this b/c they are illegal.” Why are they illegal? “We made them illegal.”

We found DHS labeling LEGAL immigrants gang members for tattoos: roses, clocks, playing cards covering up a scar from a childhood accident, a Puerto Rican song lyric, the Real Madrid logo, a callout to Call Of Duty videogame, many crowns w/ loved ones’ names like these on Andry:

Numerous reviews (CBS, NY Times, + Bloomberg) have found very few of the renditioned men had criminal records in the US or abroad. Our review found just 2 legal immigrants with a US criminal conviction, both for minor drug offenses.

Here’s our 1st profile. Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino entered the United States legally as a refugee. He was extensively vetted abroad including in-person before coming to the US, but was still detained and renditioned. This is criminal behavior by the USG.

A majority of the men were fathers. Altogether, they were supporting 44 children. Many had spouses. The US govt did not inform their families of the reason for their disappearance, nor were they informed. Legal immigrants were literally disappeared without a trace AND LIED TO

These legal immigrants are being treated worse than murderers are in the US. They had no right to legal representation, no trials before imprisonment, were disappeared, and are now imprisoned indefinitely in conditions that SCOTUS has said would violate the 8th amendment.

You can read the whole thing here. In my wildest dreams, I would never have thought to accuse the Trump administration of planning something like this. This is clearly a crime, and DHS Sec. Noem and others should be impeached for it: cato.org/blog/50-venezu…