A Venezuelan man who spent months in a Salvadoran terrorist prison after he was deported from the U.S. last year has filed a $1.3 million lawsuit saying he was the victim of President Trump’s hateful rhetoric and an illegal use of the Alien Enemies Act.
Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel was among the migrants shipped out on March 15, 2025, in Mr. Trump’s first use of the 1798 law allowing speedy deportations for people deemed to be enemies of America.
Federal officials said the Venezuelans who got booted were part of Tren de Aragua, a gang the U.S. has designated a foreign terrorist organization. But Mr. Rengel says he was misidentified and never given a chance to battle the allegations before being shipped to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
He spent four months there before El Salvador and Venezuela struck a deal to exchange Mr. Rengel and others.
“What happened to Adrián Rengel is government-sanctioned torture and a failure to recognize his humanity because he happened to be an immigrant. He deserves his day in court,” said Juan Proano, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, which is assisting in Mr. Rengel’s lawsuit.
Those March 15 flights have become a lasting issue for Mr. Trump and his team.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is pondering whether to pursue criminal contempt charges against the administration, which he said defied his orders to ground the planes or turn them back mid-flight.
Mr. Rengel said that the government’s refusal to comply with that order, along with his erroneous identification as a gang member, gives him cause to sue for negligence, false imprisonment and unlawful denial of civil rights.
In his lawsuit, he said he faced “physical and psychological torture” in CECOT.
Mr. Rengel, 28, came to the U.S. in 2023. He took advantage of one of the Biden administration’s legally iffy “parole” programs to gain a quick catch-and-release.
A year later, he applied for Temporary Protected Status, a deportation amnesty program the Biden administration extended to cover Venezuela.
He was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on March 13, 2025 — his birthday — and was told his tattoos identified him as a TdA member. He says his tattoos honor his mother and daughter and also display a barbershop and a tiger — none of which, he says, are meant to honor TdA.
He said he was told he was being sent back to Venezuela. He was put on a plane with the windows covered, and they landed in San Salvador.
In the lawsuit, he says ICE allowed Salvadoran officers to come onto the plane and beat the migrants to get them to depart the aircraft.
Homeland Security has denied rough treatment.
