(WASHINGTON) — After his deportation was temporarily blocked by a Supreme Court order, 19-year-old Venezuelan migrant Alessandro Paredes spoke to ABC News from a detention center in Texas.
“This is not being done by law, this is totally illegal and it’s out of the blue,” Paredes said, recounting the attempted deportation on Friday.
“We get grabbed in the morning, about four in the morning, and just get taken into a van. They tried to put us into a plane,” he said from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas.
Paredes said that before arriving at an airport, the van he was in suddenly turned around and returned him and other detainees to Bluebonnet.
In a statement to ABC News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the order from the Supreme Court that blocked deportations from the Northern District and said the White House is confident the actions by the administration are lawful.
“President Trump promised the American people to use all lawful measures to remove the threat of terrorist illegal aliens, like members of TdA, from the United States. We are confident in the lawfulness of the Administration’s actions and in ultimately prevailing against an onslaught of meritless litigation brought by radical activists who care more about the rights of terrorist aliens than those of the American people,” Leavitt said in her statement.
Paredes claimed to ABC News he and others were “forced to sign a paper” saying they are part of a gang. On Friday, the ACLU submitted a document they say their clients at Bluebonnet received from immigration officials. The document, titled “Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal under the Alien Enemies Act,” says, “You have been determined to be… a member of Tren de Aragua.”
“We have been forced to sign a paper, right here, basically saying that we are part of a gang, that we are part of it, and they’re forcing us to sign it,” Paredes said.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security adviser, responded to a post on X by a FOX News reporter that includes a list allegedly provided by a DHS official of “suspected Venezuelan TdA gang members” detained in Texas that the Trump administration “was planning to deport before SCOTUS stepped in.”
The list included Paredes’ name and photo and says that he is a confirmed TdA member and says that he is facing criminal charges for “aggravated assault with a weapon, pointing, and presenting firearms at a person.” The post also includes photos of Paredes’ tattoos of a cross and a clock.
“This is who the Democrats are fighting to keep in your neighborhood,” Miller said in response to the social media post of the list.
A review of court records found one charge against Paredes in South Carolina for “pointing and presenting firearms at a person” in February. The case is still ongoing and Paredes is scheduled to have his second court appearance in August.
According to WCIV, an ABC News affiliate, Paredes turned himself in on the gun charge and was booked into Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston County, South Carolina in February. The ICE detainee locator confirms Paredes is currently at Bluebonnet Detention Center.
Paredes’ mom told ABC News in a statement through their attorney that she denies the allegation that her son is a member of TdA.
“My son is only 19 years old,” the mother said, who did not want to be named. “He was a good student, a talented football player, and a loving son. He is a devout Catholic. He carries his faith on his body and in his heart — he even had a large cross tattooed on his body to mark his lifelong commitment to God.”
“He’s not a terrorist,” she said, adding that she wishes for her son to be sent to Venezuela.
“Please do not send him to El Salvador — a country he has never known, where he faces grave danger and has no support,” she added.
Earlier this month, SCOTUS lifted an injunction that barred deportations under the AEA and ruled that any person the administration sought to deport under the proclamation must be given due process. The ACLU argued Friday that the Venezuelan migrants who are being held in a detention center in Texas are at risk of deportation and have not had adequate notice or enough time to challenge their removals, violating the court’s requirement that the men have “reasonable time” to practice their due process rights.When asked by ABC News if he fears being deported to El Salvador, Paredes said he is “very scared” because he and the other detainees are not from El Salvador.
“We are very scared [that] everybody here will get deported to El Salvador,” Paredes said. “Because, first of all, we are not from there. Most people in here got no criminal records. Not even a ticket, nothing.”
“There’s underage people,” Paredes added. “We even got disabled people right here next to me.”
Paredes said he was not given any information on Friday and he still has not received answers from the officers at the detention center.
“They just tell us that they don’t know anything, and they don’t give us any kind of information,” Paredes said.
“We just want justice, we are humans, we have human rights,” Paredes added. “We just want to go back to our country.”
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