Photo: Getty Images
Detainees at a Texas immigration detention center sent a clear message for help to the outside world.
On Monday (April 28), 31 men formed the phrase "SOS" with their bodies in the dirt yard of the Bluebonnet immigration detention center in Anson, Texas, per Reuters.
The help message came days after dozens of Venezuelan detainees at the center were alleged to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and were notified by immigration officials that they were subject to deportation under a wartime law.
On April 18, the detainees were loaded on a bus heading for the Abilene Regional airport before the transport was reversed. The men were sent back to the detention center after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked their deportations.
The Venezuelan detainees at Bluebonnet still face possible deportation to Cecot, the notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration has already sent at least 137 Venezuelans under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Earlier this week, Reuters flew a drone near the Bluebonnet facility and spotted the detainees' help message.
Family members of seven detainees told Reuters that they were not gang members.
One detainee, Millan, was moved to Bluebonnet earlier this month from the Stewart detention center in Georgia after he was arrested by immigration agents in the Atlanta suburbs. Millan doesn't appear to have a criminal record and had been working in construction before his arrest. DHS alleged Millan was a “documented” member of Tren de Aragua, but provided no evidence.
A second man, Escalona, said he had no ties to any Venezuelan gang. He was previously a police officer in Venezuela. Escalona said U.S. authorities may have seen photos of him making hand gestures that were common in Venezuela when they took his phone upon his detainment.
“They’re making false accusations about me,” he said. “I don’t belong to any gang.”
Escalona noted that his request to voluntarily return to Venezuela was denied.
“I fear for my life here,” he said. “I want to go to Venezuela.”
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