On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Without providing evidence, Trump has called the men “some of the most violent savages on the face of the Earth.”
Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they'd been taken away. Now, the truth of all their stories — one by one — will begin to be told.
Starting here.
The Men Trump Deported to a Salvadoran Prison
We’ve compiled a first-of-its-kind, case-by-case accounting of 238 Venezuelan men who were held in El Salvador. To do so, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a team of Venezuelan journalists from Alianza Rebelde Investiga (Rebel Alliance Investigates) and Cazadores de Fake News (Fake News Hunters) spent the past four months reporting on the men’s lives and their backgrounds. We obtained government data that included whether they had been convicted of crimes in the U.S. or had pending charges. We found most were listed solely as having immigration violations. We also conducted interviews with relatives of more than 100 of the men; reviewed thousands of pages of court records from the U.S. and South America; and analyzed federal immigration court data. Read more about our methodology.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson did not respond to questions about the men in the database but said Trump “is committed to keeping his promises to the American people and removing dangerous criminal and terrorist illegals who pose a threat to the American public.” She referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not respond.
Search below to learn more about the men.
238 people
Legal Justification for Removal
How the Government Labeled Them
Tattoos
Help Us Report
We are still reporting. Are you or someone you know one among the people who were deported? Do you have information about the deportation operation to share? You can fill out this form or reach our tip line on Signal at 917-512-0201 or WhatsApp at 917-327-4868.
José Manuel López Bolivar41 years old
Little public information is available about López’s life in Venezuela or how he came to the U.S. other than that he had lived in Texas. Immigration court records also show he had a pending asylum application when he was flown to El Salvador. Please reach out if you have information to share.
U.S. government data we obtained lists López as having a criminal conviction for assault. We found records showing that, in July 2024, he pleaded guilty in Denton County, Texas, to assaulting a family member, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to a year in jail and he received credit for time served.
Yorbis Sánchez Bigott29 years old
Little public information is available about Sánchez’s life in Venezuela or how he came to the U.S. Please reach out if you have information to share.
He was not flagged as having criminal convictions or pending charges in U.S. government data that we obtained, and we found no related court or police records.
Brayan Palencia Benavides25 years old
The family had moved to Colombia in 2016 amid Venezuela’s economic crisis, Palencia’s father told the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. Later, Palencia decided to migrate to the U.S. in search of a better life and found work in construction in Miami, according to the newspaper. Palencia, who has a daughter and a wife in Colombia, had a pending asylum application when he was deported and imprisoned, according to our analysis of immigration court data. It’s unclear if his tattoos, which include the name of his daughter, a clock and flowers, played a role in the government labeling him a member of the Tren de Aragua.
He was not flagged as having criminal convictions or pending charges in U.S. government data that we obtained, and we found no related court or police records.
Christian Bill Petterson Torres26 years old
Little public information is available about Petterson’s life in Venezuela or how he came to the U.S. Before he was sent to El Salvador, his mother said in a social media video that he called her and said, “Mommy, they are taking me, but I don’t know where to.” He has tattoos of letters, according to posts on social media. It’s unclear if those tattoos played a role in the government labeling him a member of the Tren de Aragua. Please reach out if you have information to share.
U.S. government data we obtained lists Petterson as having a criminal conviction for kidnapping. We found records showing that, in April 2023, he was arrested for an alleged rape of a woman in Gallatin, Tennessee. According to court documents, the initial indictment for aggravated rape was amended to felony kidnapping, and he pleaded guilty in November 2023. He was sentenced to three years in state prison.
Edicson David Quintero Chacón28 years old
Quintero is a former member of the Venezuelan military who, like his father, later worked as a fisherman, his sister told us; he also worked as a carpenter. He has two children who live in Venezuela. Before moving to the U.S., he lived in Chile and Colombia. He turned himself in to immigration officials in Texas in April 2024 and was released to continue his immigration case. He was later detained during a routine check-in with immigration officials in North Carolina, according to his sister. His tattoos include the name of his mother, a figure of the iconic silhouette of Michael Jordan midjump and a matching crown he got with his partner. It’s unclear if those tattoos played a role in the government labeling him a member of the Tren de Aragua gang. While information about the legal justification for Quintero’s deportation was not included in the U.S. government data we obtained, his lawyers said he had a removal order. He was ordered deported to Venezuela in immigration court in September 2024, according to court documents and his attorneys at the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Immigration Project and the American Immigration Council.
He is not included in the U.S. government data we obtained, and we found no related court or police records.
Kleiver Travieso González25 years old
Travieso was a barber who left Venezuela in search of a better life, his family said in a short video posted on social media. Otherwise, little public information is available about his life in Venezuela or how he came to the U.S. It’s unclear if his tattoos, which include an angel and other images that are not clear in the photos the family has shared on social media, played a role in the government labeling him a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.
He was not flagged as having criminal convictions or pending charges in U.S. government data that we obtained, and we found no related court or police records.
Jean Rivero Coroy24 years old
Rivero left Venezuela in hopes of providing a better life for his young son, his mother said in an interview with the Venezuelan news outlet Noticias Oriente. He has tattoos, according to photos on social media, but it’s unclear what type or if they played a role in the government labeling him a member of the Tren de Aragua. Little other public information is available about Rivero. Please reach out if you have information to share.
U.S. government data we obtained lists Rivero as having pending criminal charges. We could not find related court or police records, and the Trump administration declined to provide information to support the claim.
José Javier Mora Balzán41 years old
Little public information is available about Mora’s life in Venezuela or how he came to the U.S. Please reach out if you have information to share.
He was not flagged as having criminal convictions or pending charges in U.S. government data that we obtained, and we found no court or police records. Venezuelan court records indicate he was arrested several times between 2005 and 2007 for various alleged offenses, including illegal possession of a firearm, robbery and resisting arrest. It’s unclear how those cases were resolved. He was also arrested in 2009 in the Venezuelan state of Falcón and charged with drug trafficking and criminal conspiracy. The 2009 case went to trial, and in 2013, he was found guilty of those charges and sentenced to eight years in prison, according to Venezuelan court records.
Diego Andrés Lemus Cagua22 years old
Lemus lived in the Chicago area and worked as a carpenter for about a year before he was detained and sent to El Salvador, his cousin told us. He has a wife and a stepdaughter. Before migrating to the U.S., he worked at his father’s beachside restaurant in Venezuela until his family closed it due to lack of tourism. Photos posted online show that he has a tattoo of a name on his arm. It’s unclear if it played a role in the government labeling him a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.
U.S. government data we obtained lists Lemus as having pending criminal charges. We found records showing that, in November, he and a woman were arrested for attempting to steal clothing at a mall in Katy, Texas. He was charged in Fort Bend County, Texas, with property theft valued between $100 and $750, a misdemeanor. It’s not clear if the case has been resolved.
Elvis Daniel Batista Aria25 years old
Little public information is available about Batista’s life in Venezuela or how he came to the U.S. But court records show that he lived in the Chicago area since at least the summer of 2023. Almost two weeks before he was sent to El Salvador, an immigration court judge granted Batista his voluntary departure, which would have allowed him to pay for his own travel home to Venezuela, court records show. Please reach out if you have additional information to share.
U.S. government data we obtained lists Batista as having a criminal conviction for larceny. We found records showing that he pleaded guilty in March 2024 to attempted theft in Perrysburg, Ohio. He also had two ongoing retail theft cases in Cook County, Illinois. He was arrested in December 2023 on a felony charge for allegedly taking more than $1,600 worth of items from a Burlington Coat Factory in suburban Chicago. Prosecutors dropped the case in June after the public defender’s office told the court Batista had been deported to El Salvador. A year later, he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge for allegedly taking less than $300 worth of items from a Marshall’s in downtown Chicago. No plea had been entered in either case. He was also ticketed in July 2023 for driving without a valid license or insurance and improper use of headlights. It’s unclear how those charges were resolved.
Methodology
The information in this database covers 238 of the Venezuelan men who were sent to CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, on March 15, and whose names were first published by CBS News. The men were released last week and returned to Venezuela. (In total, more than 250 Venezuelan men were imprisoned and released.)
The database is part of a joint investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and the Venezuelan news outlets Alianza Rebelde Investiga (Rebel Alliance Investigates) and Cazadores de Fake News (Fake News Hunters). To confirm the deportees’ identities, we used the men’s dates of birth to search official Venezuelan government databases, including the identity card database of the Ministry of People’s Power for Interior Relations, Justice and Peace; the public database of the National Institute of Social Security; and the public database of the Venezuelan Electoral Registry. The news organizations interviewed family members of more than 100 of the Venezuelan deportees, in addition to dozens of attorneys and advocates representing the men. The interviews were conducted before the men were freed, and many were done in Spanish.
We combed social media accounts of the men and their relatives, news stories, U.S. government press releases and court documents. To determine what happened with their immigration cases, we analyzed records from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review.
We also exclusively obtained data sets the government had about the men before it deported them. Those data sets included whether they had been convicted of crimes in the U.S., had pending charges or were listed solely as having immigration violations. Some information was missing about nine men. To verify and expand on that information, we then searched U.S. public records databases; reviewed police, sheriff’s department and county court websites; read through court documents; and submitted dozens of public records requests to law enforcement agencies and court systems across the country. The findings on criminal records are not comprehensive since there’s no universal database of charges or convictions.
To find criminal histories in foreign countries, we reviewed records from the official website of the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice and consulted a global legal database. We also interviewed police officials in Peru, Chile and Colombia. In addition, we obtained three Venezuelan police databases and a January 2024 Interpol report to create a list of more than 1,400 names of alleged Venezuelan gang members, including members of Tren de Aragua. We checked that against the names of the 238 men and found no matches.
For individuals whom the Trump administration flagged as having pending criminal charges or convictions in the U.S., we attempted to reach out to their relatives and to their defense attorneys. If we got a response, we included it.
In addition, we asked the Trump administration about each of these cases. Unless it’s noted in individual entries, the administration did not respond to questions about the men.
The database reflects the ages of the men on March 15.
Additional design and development by: Zisiga Mukulu, ProPublica
Additional data reporting by: Agnel Philip, ProPublica
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