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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
@ReichlinMelnick
Mar 30 • 11 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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NEW: @ACLU obtained ICE's "Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide," confirming all it takes to be sent to rot in prison in El Salvador is 1) having a tattoo an ICE officer says is a "gang tattoo" and 2) displaying "logos," "symbols," or clothes an ICE officer says are gang signs. Image
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In order for ICE to declare someone an "Alien Enemy," ICE must first determine they are a Venezuelan over age 14, and then second find 8 points on a scoring guide they made up.

It's 4 points for having alleged gang tattoos and 4 points for displaying gang "logos" or "symbols." Image
This checklist is shocking. A person can be declared an "Alien Enemy" based ONLY on communications with someone ICE says is a member, and nothing more.

6 points for texting a "known member of TDA" + 3 points for Venmoing or CashApping a "known member" = 9 points = TDA member. Image
One thing on this checklist even violates the AEA proclamation itself -- which applies ONLY to "members" of the gang.

By assigning 10 points to this category, a person who admits to being an "associate" (not the same as a member!) is automatically deemed a member anyway. Image
By far the most terrifying part of this checklist is the "Association" and "Symbolism" section.

Many experts say TdA does NOT use tattoos or gang signs like some other groups. And some of the tattoos ICE claims are "TDA tattoos" are things many innocent people have, like roses. Image
Imagine a guy's roommate is someone ICE says is a TDA member.

- 2 points for "residing" with him
- 2 points for "closely associating" with him
- 2 points for being in a "group photo"
- 2 points for "social media posts" with him.

= 8 points = sent to prison in El Salvador. Image
With this checklist, ICE can declare any Venezuelan an "Alien Enemy" without ANY concrete evidence -- based solely on an ICE officer's interpretation of tattoos and hand signs, or the bad luck of having a roommate ICE thinks is TDA.

This is why due process matters!
One final thing to flag: a person doesn't even need to hit 8 points to be declared a TDA member! The form itself says once a person hits 6 or higher points, a supervisor can sign off and declare the person a TDA member.

So JUST texting someone ICE says is TDA could be enough. Image
The full document is available here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Adding some more context here: The huge problem with a lot of these is the subjectivity. The document listed above includes an ICE list of what some Tren de Aragua "identifiers" may be.

So wearing a Michael Jordan jersey can get you halfway to being deemed a TDA member! Image
Adding more here on the TdA "gang tattoos" concept.

It turns out that ICE's own internal guidance on what a "TdA tattoo" looks like actually stole random pictures of tattoos off the internet which had nothing to do with Tren de Aragua in the first place.

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More from @ReichlinMelnick

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Apr 1
Vance is badly wrong here. In 2019, a police informant alleged the guy was in MS-13. He spent a year in ICE detention as a result, then won his case. He’s been out for the last five years, married to a U.S. citizen, has two kids, and STILL has no criminal record at all.
In 2019, Mr. Abrego was arrested outside a Home Depot, his only criminal arrest.

A cop declared that he was a gang member because he was wearing a Bulls jersey and a "confidential informant" said he was in an MS-13 clique in a state he'd never lived in.
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When ICE filed evidence against Mr. Abrego in 2019, it submitted its own arrest document, which falsely claimed he had been arrested as part of a murder investigation. Despite this error, the immigration judge had to trust ICE's allegations b/c of caselaw, so he was denied bond. Image
Read 13 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Apr 1
Oh my god. They deported a man who an immigration judge had declared was "more likely than not" to face persecution in El Salvador... to El Salvador!

They outright admit it! Yet the Trump admin's response to a court is basically "oops, well, no take backsies." Image
This guy is part of the group of alleged MS-13 members sent to El Salvador on March 15.

In 2019, a PG County Police informant alleged he was connect to MS-13. He has only traffic tickets and has apparently been living a quiet life with family since winning protection in 2019. The respondent argues that the Immigration Judge clearly erred in determining that he is a verified member of MS-13 because there is no reliable evidence in the record to support such a finding (Respondent's Br. at 6-9). In this regard, the respondent asserts that a Prince George's County Police Department Gang Field Interview Sheet ("GFIS") is based on hearsay relayed by a confidential source (Exh. 4). The respondent also claims that he presented sufficient evidence to rebut the allegation that he is affiliated with MS-13, including character references and criminal records showi...
In 2019, an immigration judge agreed he was likely to be persecuted if sent back to El Salvador - a protection known as "withholding of removal."

Despite having won his case, on March 12, 2025, ICE arrested him. Three days later, he was illegally sent to El Salvador. Image
Read 6 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Mar 30
NEW: An ACLU filing sheds light on how "Andry," the gay make-up artist sent to rot in a prison in El Salvador, ended up labeled "Tren de Aragua" by ICE.

Documents filed by ICE shows that the ONLY evidence ICE listed for membership in TdA was a tattoo of a crown with "mom" below. Image
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Here are the tattoos that ICE declared were evidence that Andry, a gay make-up artist who came to a port of entry seeking asylum from Venezuela, was a member of the vicious gang "Tren de Aragua."

I am not making this up. This is it. "Mom" and "Dad" with crowns over them. Image
The document, a gang questionnaire that was filled out when Andry was first detained by ICE, is maddening.

Andry keeps saying he has no connection with the gangs, yet the ICE officer filling out the form keeps writing in things suggesting he's linked to Tren de Aragua. Image
Read 9 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Mar 30
NEW: Another documents filed by the ACLU is an unclassified ICE document showing what it alleges are Tren de Aragua tattoos. The @nypost also published these in 2024.

But reverse image search shows these images were stolen from the internet and have nothing to do with TdA! 🧵 Image
The "Jump-Man" imagine, which the New York Post claimed "refers to 23 de Enero ... a Venezuelan neighborhood" (it's Michael Jordan's number, guys), was first posted on Twitter in 2015 by a random Michael Jordan fan account. Image
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The AK-47 tattoo posted in the ICE Homeland Security Investigations "intelligence report" appears to be taken from a random Turkish tattoo artist's profile. Image
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Read 11 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Mar 28
NEW: Judge Brinkema UNLOADED on ICE's "evidence" of TdA membership:

"This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issued on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers."

This is why due process matters! This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issue on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers. No agent should do this type of editorializing, not when people's liberty is at stake. I expect more from the government than this kind of very shoddy work. This is assumptions and putting words in people's mouths. You don't have it here. I was shocked when I saw this. It came in late on Thursday afternoon and I was getting tired at the end of the day and it woke me up. But anyway, you don't have it. It's not here.
Here's an example of the "rigorous vetting" of gang membership that the Trump admin claims it's doing:

A woman admitted that her dead ex-husband, who she left 10 years ago, had been a TdA member.

From that — and nothing more! — ICE declared she "is a senior member of the TDA." THE COURT: All right. And it is the sorriest statement I've ever seen. First of all, it's pure hearsay in the sense that it's not any evidence that he himself, as I understand it, directly has. In other words, he did not interrogate either of these two people and hear this directly. His statement is that it was reported to him that this was done. And if you look at the seminal paragraphs in his statement, paragraph 14, this is what he says:
(As read): "Upon arrest, the petitioners were read their Miranda Rights. agreed to speak with the border patrol agents. She stated that she is associated with the TDA terrorist organization. She stated that she was previously married to Mr. , a member of TDA. She stated that she is from the municipality of Aragua, Venezuela, where TDA is based, and she knows members of TDA. She stated that she separated from her ex-husband approximately 10 years ago. She stated that her ex-husband was killed by the Venezuelan government due to his affiliation with TDA. She stated she met after separati...
illegally." Two paragraphs later, paragraph 16, the same apparently investigating agents, draw the conclusion: (As read): is a senior member of the TDA." How do you get from somebody who was married possibly 10 years ago to a TDA gang member, marriage, all of a sudden she's a senior member? This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issue on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers.
Judge Brinkema, on ICE's "evidence" a woman was a Tren de Aragua member:

- "Terrible, terrible affidavit"
- "Very shoddy work"
- "No agent should do this type of editorializing, not when people's liberty is at stake"
- "This is assumptions and putting words in people's mouths."
Read 5 tweets
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Mar 27
NEW! The Trump administration appears to have sent a married father with NO CRIMINAL RECORD to rot in a prison in El Salvador because of a PAPERWORK ERROR.

This man doesn’t even have tattoos! But his paperwork has two different peoples’ ID numbers listed and the wrong last name! Image
More from the article: his family even got evidence from Venezuela proving he has no criminal record in that country either.

This adds yet another case to the growing list of examples of people seemingly sent to rot in prison in El Salvador due to the Trump admin's sloppiness. Image
ALSO: from this reporting, even if the paperwork errors didn't happen, Mr. Reyes Mota should not have been sent to El Salvador!

The President's proclamation applies only to MEMBERS of the gang. But here the accusation is that he "may" have been an "associate." Not even a member! Image
Read 4 tweets

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