Venezuelan Asylum Seeker Possibly Wrongfully Deported to El Salvadorian Prison

Immigration lawyers claimed that Venezuelan national Andrys Cedeno-Gil was wrongly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration.

The Details: Lindsay Toczylowski, president of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, made the claim in a TV interview with Rachel Maddow (Left bias) of MSNBC (Left) on March 20. Toczylowski said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wrongly detained Cedeno-Gil last year when he sought asylum in the U.S. over tattoos it thought linked him to the street gang Tren de Aragua, but she claimed were “normal.” He allegedly sought asylum because he is gay and is opposed to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

For Context: Around March 16, the Trump administration deported over 200 Venezuelans to a “mega” prison in El Salvador, claiming suspicions of links to Tren de Aragua. Many were deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows deportation without due process. A federal judge immediately ordered Trump to halt the deportations, and media across the spectrum questioned if Trump’s action was legal or not. On March 23, Venezuela said it would begin accepting repatriation flights of its deported citizens.

How The Media Covered It: The story bubbled under online for a few days after Rachel Maddow’s March 20 segment before being picked up more by the mainstream. Initially, only Cedeno-Gil’s first name was referenced by media since his last name was not mentioned on Maddow’s show. Huffpost (Left) reported that he is 23, while Forbes (Center) and Daily Mail (Right) reported that he is 31. Glenn Greenwald (Center) emphasized that Cedeno-Gil was “in the U.S. legally.” Greenwald and an opinion published in The Hill (Center) both highlighted that Cedeno-Gil’s deportation makes determining the truth difficult because he can’t be present for hearings.

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