Simply being in the United States without a legal immigration status is a civil matter—not a criminal one. Yet Donald Trump’s regime increasingly treats immigrants like criminals. In March, the administration sent more than 200 immigrants to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison with a history of human rights abuses. The Trump administration has claimed—without providing evidence in any court—that men sent to CECOT were criminals and gang members.
Per reporting from multiple news outlets, most of the men sent to CECOT had no criminal records in the United States. The Trump administration has admitted that at least one, Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego García, was targeted by mistake; a judge had issued an order barring his deportation.
Edna Yang is co-executive director at American Gateways, an Austin nonprofit that provides low-cost and pro-bono legal services for low-income families and individuals across Central Texas. Yang represents Carlos Daniel Terán Aguilar, an 18-year-old originally from the Gran Sabana region in Southeast Venezuela, whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement has accused—without presenting evidence—of being a member of a transnational organized crime syndicate. Terán Aguilar was living in Texas and seeking asylum. In March, the federal government sent him to CECOT, where he remains.
