Jerce Reyes Barrios: Tattoo, CECOT, and Release

Jerce Reyes Barrios is a 36-year-old Venezuelan professional soccer player and youth coach who was deported from the United States to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT, on March 15, 2025, after the Department of Homeland Security cited a tattoo his attorney said was a Real Madrid tribute as evidence that he belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang. He had entered the U.S. legally through a CBP One asylum appointment, had no criminal record, and spent roughly four months inside CECOT before a diplomatic prisoner swap in July 2025 returned him to Venezuela.¹²

Who He Is

Reyes Barrios grew up in Machiques de Perijá, in the Venezuelan state of Zulia. He played professionally as a goalkeeper for Caroní in Venezuela’s first division from 2011 to 2012, Fundación Atlético Maracaibo in the second division from 2012 to 2013, and most recently Perijaneros Fútbol Club in the third division between 2023 and 2024.³ Alongside playing, he worked as a youth coach at the Dancy Bravo Youth Soccer Foundation in Maracaibo.¹

He lived with his common-law wife, Mariyin Araujo Sandoval, and their two young daughters, Carla and Isabella, and helped raise Sandoval’s two sons from a previous relationship. His attorney, Linette Tobin, and family said he had no criminal record in Venezuela, a point corroborated by an official document from the Venezuelan Minister of Internal Policy and Legal Security. According to reporting on his case, he left Venezuela in 2024 after being detained and tortured for taking part in anti-Maduro protests earlier that year.¹

The Tattoo at the Center of His Case

Reyes Barrios has a tattoo on his left arm showing a crown atop a soccer ball, a rosary, and the word “Dios.” His attorney, his family, and the tattoo artist, Victor David Mengual Fernandez, all said the design was a tribute to Real Madrid, whose logo features a crown, and that “Dios” referred to the late Argentine player Diego Maradona’s nickname. Mengual filed a sworn declaration in court attesting that the tattoo was purely soccer-related and that Reyes Barrios had no gang connections.⁴¹

DHS saw the tattoo differently. Texas Department of Public Safety materials identify crowns, stars, and roses as symbols used by Tren de Aragua members, and the words “Real” and “Dios” appear in known gang mottos such as “Real Hasta la Muerte” and “Hijos de Dios.”⁴ The agency also pointed to social media photos in which Reyes Barrios made a hand gesture it interpreted as a gang sign. Tobin said the gesture was a common “rock and roll” or “I love you” sign in American Sign Language.⁵

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin defended the classification, saying “DHS intelligence assessments go beyond a single tattoo and we are confident in our findings,” and that the agency would not share intelligence reports “every time a gang member denies he is one.” An unnamed administration official said Reyes Barrios had additional tattoos the agency considered TdA-affiliated, though DHS did not publicly specify which.² According to the Brennan Center for Justice, roughly 75% of those deported under the Trump administration’s proclamation had no criminal record.⁶

How He Ended Up in U.S. Detention

Reyes Barrios traveled from Venezuela through Mexico, registered for an asylum appointment through the CBP One app, waited months, and presented himself at the Otay Mesa border crossing in California on September 1, 2024.⁷ Instead of being released to await his hearing, he was placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego after authorities accused him of ties to Tren de Aragua.²

Tobin submitted evidence contesting the gang designation, including the tattoo artist’s sworn declaration and documents showing no criminal history. Reyes Barrios was briefly moved out of maximum-security housing, and an immigration hearing was scheduled for April 17, 2025. He never made it to that hearing.²

Deported to CECOT

Around March 10 or 11, 2025, Reyes Barrios was transferred from Otay Mesa to Texas without notice to his attorney or family. On March 15, he was put on a deportation flight to El Salvador as part of a group of Venezuelan men removed under a March 14, 2025 presidential proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.² He later said ICE officials had suggested the detainees were being sent to Venezuela, not El Salvador.⁸

That same day, the ACLU and Democracy Forward filed an emergency lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the government to turn the planes around. The government did not comply. Reyes Barrios and the others were delivered to CECOT, in San Luis Talpa, a mega-prison built by President Nayib Bukele’s government to hold people designated as gang members and terrorists. The U.S. agreed to pay El Salvador $6 million to imprison the group for one year.⁸⁵

His family only learned where he was after recognizing him in news photographs of prisoners being paraded at CECOT. His aunt, Ayari del Carmen Pedroza Guerrero, identified him by a distinctive scar on his hand. For the first two weeks, detainees were cut off from the outside world; his attorney and family lost all contact with him.²⁹

What He Said Happened Inside CECOT

After his release, Reyes Barrios gave detailed accounts of his imprisonment to the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and ABC News. He said the intake was violent: detainees had their heads shaved, were stripped, and were issued uniforms while guards beat them. On arrival, he said a guard announced: “Welcome to El Salvador, you sons of bitches. You’ve arrived at the Terrorist Confinement Center. Hell on earth.”⁸⁷

He said cells held roughly 22 men each, that detainees slept on bare metal beds without mattresses, and that lights remained on constantly. Guards beat batons against cell bars to prevent sleep during the day and struck inmates on the neck, ribs, and head. Food consisted of beans and tortillas. Inmates drank contaminated water, which was also used for their single daily shower at 4 a.m. Entering his cell block for the first time, he said, he saw “blood, vomit and people passed out on the floor.”⁹⁷⁸

Conditions were temporarily cleaned up when the Red Cross or other officials visited, Reyes Barrios said: inmates were given fresh clothing, allowed to shower, and provided with better food. He also alleged guards occasionally staged brief soccer matches among a single cell of inmates and filmed them for what he characterized as propaganda before returning the men to their cells.⁸ Venezuela’s attorney general separately reported “systemic torture” at CECOT, including daily beatings, sexual abuse, and the use of pellet guns against inmates.⁷ El Salvador’s government has stated that it respects the human rights of those in its custody.⁹

Reyes Barrios said he prayed and read the Bible, particularly the Book of Job, for patience. He recalled his thoughts at one point: “God, protect my mother and my children. I entrust my soul to you because I think I’m going to die.”⁷

Release and Return to Venezuela

On July 18, 2025, after roughly 125 days at CECOT, Reyes Barrios was released along with 251 other Venezuelan detainees in a diplomatic prisoner swap. Under the deal, the Maduro government in Venezuela released 10 American citizens detained in the country, and El Salvador freed the Venezuelan deportees, who were flown back to Venezuela. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was identified as a key figure in negotiations with Bukele, and U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler traveled to El Salvador to oversee logistics.¹⁰ Roughly a week before the release, Reyes Barrios said conditions inside CECOT noticeably shifted: beatings stopped, inmates were given haircuts and fresh clothing, and the food improved.⁹

He was dropped off in his hometown of Machiques de Perijá by a Venezuelan National Guard truck during the week of July 21, 2025. Hundreds of residents lined the streets, throwing confetti and cheering. More than a dozen children in lime green uniforms from his former youth team were waiting. His sister recorded video of him embracing his father. The homecoming, he told ABC News, “shows the U.S. government that I’m not a criminal.”⁸

Reunited with his mother, wife, and children, Reyes Barrios said he felt like he was dreaming and had to pinch himself to confirm his freedom was real. He told the Los Angeles Times he was “overjoyed” and “grateful to be back with his family,” though he said he was haunted by the experience.⁷ He said he has no plans to return to the United States and is focused on his daughters. A team of lawyers has been advising him about a potential lawsuit, but as of mid-2025 he had not decided whether to file one.⁸

The Legal Fight Over the Deportations

The removal of Reyes Barrios and the others was carried out under the Trump administration’s March 14, 2025 proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 statute that allows the detention and removal of nationals of hostile foreign powers during declared wars or foreign “invasions” or “predatory incursions.” The administration argued that Tren de Aragua was aligned with the Maduro regime and that its activity in the U.S. constituted an invasion. The Treasury Department had designated TdA as a transnational criminal organization in July 2024, and the State Department classified it as a terrorist organization in February 2025.¹¹

The ACLU and Democracy Forward’s class action, J.G.G. v. Trump, moved quickly through the courts. On April 7, 2025, the Supreme Court vacated Judge Boasberg’s restraining orders, holding that challenges under the Act had to be brought as individual habeas petitions in the district of confinement. The Court affirmed that detainees “are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal.”¹² On May 16, 2025, in a 7-2 unsigned opinion, the Court held that roughly 24 hours of notice before removal was insufficient.¹³ In December 2025, Boasberg ruled that the March 2025 deportations had been carried out illegally in “open defiance” of his directives, finding that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had foreknowledge of the men’s placement at CECOT and that the U.S. maintained control over their detention there.¹⁴

Reyes Barrios’s case was cited by the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the National Immigration Law Center as emblematic of the due process failures in the administration’s use of the Act.¹⁵¹⁶ Tobin, his attorney, told the National Immigration Law Center: “I’ve been practicing immigration law for 28 years. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s uncharted territory.”¹⁷

1
Massachusetts Review. Thank You for Not Leaving Us All Alone
2
ABC News. Man Deported to El Salvador Under Alien Enemies Act Over Soccer Logo Tattoo
3
El Diario. Rehenes del CECOT: Caso Jerce Reyes
4
CNN. Deported Venezuelan’s Real Madrid Tattoo
5
NPR. ICE Deports Venezuelan Soccer Coach to El Salvador
6
Brennan Center for Justice. Supreme Court Lifts Injunction Barring Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act
7
Los Angeles Times. A Venezuelan Deportee Recounts Abuse in El Salvador Prison
8
ABC News. Dreaming Soccer Coach Deported Over Tattoo Celebrates Release From CECOT
9
CNN. Venezuelan Recounts Abuse at El Salvador CECOT Prison
10
CNN. Venezuela-US Prisoner Swap
11
FactCheck.org. Q&A on the Alien Enemies Act and Tren de Aragua
12
U.S. Supreme Court. Trump v. J.G.G., No. 24A931
13
NBC News. Supreme Court Rules on Trump Administration Venezuelans Alien Enemies Act
14
Politico. Alien Enemies Act James Boasberg Ruling
15
ACLU. J.G.G. v. Trump
16
Human Rights Watch. United States: Repeal the Alien Enemies Act
17
National Immigration Law Center. Tracking the CECOT Disappearances