Overview
- Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel filed a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday seeking at least $1.3 million over his 2025 removal and four months in El Salvador’s CECOT prison.
- The complaint says officers flagged him as a Tren de Aragua member based on tattoos, ignored his active immigration case, and sent him out of the country despite no deportation order on record and a hearing set for 2028.
- DHS says he is a public safety threat with ties to the gang and defends his removal, while declining to provide public evidence and citing national security limits on disclosing intelligence.
- Human Rights Watch and multiple investigations report that Venezuelans held at CECOT suffered beatings, extreme crowding, lack of medical care, and psychological abuse that meet definitions of arbitrary detention and torture.
- The case follows court rulings that the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for mass removals was unlawful and an order to help return deportees for due process, and it could spur more claims and a test of whether the U.S. can be held financially liable for actions tied to a foreign prison.