Lawyer Warns Trump Is Moving to Deport Teen to El Salvador for Photo of Water Pistol
Source: The Rolling Stone
Lawyer Warns Trump Is Moving to Deport Teen to El Salvador for Photo of Water Pistol
Nikki McCann Ramirez
Fri, April 18, 2025 at 12:46 PM EDT 4 min read
The Donald Trump administration’s unlawful removal of hundreds of migrants to a gulag in El Salvador — and their subsequent legal battle to keep them there — have showcased the president’s clear disregard for human rights and the United States court system. They are planning to do it again.
Most of the Venezuelan and Salvadoran migrants that were dumped by the Trump administration in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a notorious mega-prison accused of grave abuse against inmates, had no criminal record. Notable cases like that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — who the Trump administration admitted was deported due to an “administrative error” — have become flashpoints for the White House’s attempts to skirt immigration law through the reinterpretation of archaic legislation like the Alien Enemies Act.
-snip-
One individual in the lawsuit is a teenager, referred to in court documents as “Y.S.M.” According to filings from the ACLU, Y.S.M. was born in 2006 in Venezuela — making him 18 or 19 years old. The court record claims that the teenager was detained by immigration agents who accused him of being a member of Tren de Aragua after seeing a Facebook photo of him featuring what they alleged to be a pistol — but was actually a water gun.
“The agents stated that the photograph, found on Facebook, proved the Y.S.M. was a member of Tren de Aragua and that one of the persons in the photograph had a gun. Y.S.M. pointed out to the agents that the gun in question was in fact a water pistol. I have seen and reviewed the Facebook photograph in question and have confirmed that the gun in question is a water pistol,” says a filing from Y.S.M.’s lawyer.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawyer-warns-trump-moving-deport-164621865.html