The Trump administration has cited evidence such as tattoos, pro-Hamas flyers, and deleted photos in its legal efforts to detain and deport migrants from the United States in several high-profile actions over the past few weeks.
This evidence has been used in attempts to send over 200 Venezuelan men to prison in El Salvador for alleged gang membership, to detain a pro-Palestinian activist and green card holder without charging him with any crime, and to deport a doctor with a visa to Lebanon.
While individuals in immigration court already face a lower standard of due process, the Trump administration’s actions represent an even further stark decline in migrant civil liberties, according to immigration attorneys.
“Under the Trump administration, we’re seeing allegations based on flimsy evidence, coupled with no meaningful opportunity to refute that evidence in any kind of proceeding before any decision-maker,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director of the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration non-profit group. “That’s what makes this situation truly distinct.”
The administration’s rapid pace of detention and deportation has similarly bewildered attorneys.
“Every day, we’re confronted with a new decision, and we struggle to understand it,” Veronica Cardenas, former assistant chief counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, told CNN last week. “Immigration lawyers are experiencing a severe lack of due process, with immigration courts being circumvented, making this a very challenging time.”
The Trump administration has countered criticism regarding immigrants’ legal rights.
“Due process? What due process did Laken Riley have?” said border czar Tom Homan on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to the nursing student killed by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela. “What due process did all those young women killed and raped by members of Tren de Aragua receive?”
Here’s a closer examination of some of the evidence cited in these cases and the responses from attorneys and family members of the migrants regarding its relevance.
A Closer Look at the Tattoo Evidence
The Trump administration deported over 230 Venezuelans earlier this month, sending them to prison in El Salvador for alleged gang membership. However, some have claimed they were wrongly suspected due to their tattoos.
The Texas Department of Public Safety identified various tattoos associated with Tren de Aragua last year, many of which are relatively common: stars on the shoulder, royal crowns, firearms, trains, dice, roses, tigers, and jaguars. A photo collage of these tattoos even includes a Nike “Jumpman” logo and Michael Jordan’s number 23 jersey as identifiers of gang membership.
José Daniel Simancas Rodríguez, who spent 15 days in detention at Guantanamo Bay before being deported to Venezuela, told CNN that U.S. authorities suspected him because of his tattoos and his origin from Maracay, the gang’s original stronghold. He denies any gang affiliation.
A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Trump administration regarding its deportation efforts details the case of “J.G.G.,” a Venezuelan non-citizen and tattoo artist seeking asylum. J.G.G.’s leg tattoos made him a target for deportation, according to the lawsuit.
The ACLU stated that J.G.G.’s tattoos—a rose and skull on his leg, and an eye with a clock—are not associated with Tren de Aragua.
“During an interview with ICE, he was detained because the officer mistakenly suspected him of being a Tren de Aragua member based on his tattoos,” the lawsuit states.
Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder and president of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, represents a Venezuelan asylum seeker who was abruptly deported to El Salvador.
“He came here seeking protection and asylum, and because of his tattoos—the kind you’d see on anyone in a Los Angeles coffee shop—he’s now in a labor prison in El Salvador known for human rights abuses,” Toczylowski said.
Trump Administration Defends Deportations
These deportations stem from President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law rarely used in U.S. history, primarily during major military conflicts.
Detentions and deportations under this act bypass the immigration court system, which provides immigrants the opportunity to seek relief and present their case to remain in the country.
The U.S. recently designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, and officials claim the country is under “invasion” by the gang, justifying the use of the Alien Enemies Act. CNN reported that over half of the 261 migrants deported to El Salvador were processed under this act.
The administration has not publicly identified those deported to El Salvador or provided evidence that they belong to Tren de Aragua. CNN has been unable to confirm any gang affiliations among the deported migrants mentioned in this report.
“We will not disclose operational details about a counter-terrorism operation,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week. She added that ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents had “strong evidence.”
“They were 100% confident in the individuals sent back on these flights and in the president’s executive authority to do so,” Leavitt said.
The administration argued in court that the deported migrants were “carefully vetted” using investigative techniques and information review to ensure they were Tren de Aragua members, according to a court declaration from an agency official.
Robert Cerna, acting field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, argued that the agency “did not rely solely on social media posts, photos of gang-related gestures, or tattoos.”
ICE also considered prior criminal convictions, testimonies, and interviews with known Tren de Aragua members, according to the filing.
“Members of TdA pose an extraordinary threat to the American public. They are involved in illicit activities to instill fear and dominance in neighborhoods and among the general population,” the filing states.
The Flyers and ‘Misrepresentation’ Evidence
Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist, was arrested by immigration officers nearly three weeks ago outside his Columbia University apartment. A legal permanent U.S. resident, he played a key role in protests against the Israel-Hamas war on campus last year.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Khalil’s detention, citing a rarely used section of U.S. law allowing him to revoke immigration status if a person’s “activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
Leavitt accused Khalil of organizing protests that “distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, flyers with the Hamas logo,” which his attorneys deny. She claimed to have a copy of the flyer but did not present it.
Khalil has not been charged with any crime since his detention.
Khalil described himself as a “political prisoner” in a letter dictated to his attorneys from the ICE detention facility. “My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza,” Khalil said.
In a court filing, the Trump administration argued that his deportation is justified because he failed to disclose his previous work at the Syria office of the British Embassy in Beirut and his membership in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on his application to become a permanent U.S. resident.
The U.S. government wrote that Khalil “sought to procure an immigration benefit by fraud of willful misrepresentation of a material fact.”
Khalil was an unpaid intern with UNRWA in 2023, not a staff member, spokesperson Juliette Touma told CNN.
His defense attorneys argue that this new justification is weak and doesn’t “cure the obvious taint of retaliation.”
“It’s an acknowledgment that the initial charges are unsustainable,” attorney Baher Azmy told CNN. “So, they’re pursuing a theory they believe is more legally defensible.”
The Deleted Photos
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, was deported from Boston to Lebanon after federal agents found photos of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s supreme leader on her cell phone, according to a court filing by the Trump administration.
It’s unclear why federal officers examined her phone.
“In explaining why these multiple photos were deleted one to two days before her arrival at Logan Airport, Dr. Alawieh stated she did not want to give authorities the perception that she supports Hezbollah and the Ayatollah politically or militarily,” the court filing reads, per CNN affiliate WCVB.
Alawieh, who attended Nasrallah’s funeral in Lebanon, described him as a highly regarded religious leader and said she follows his religious and spiritual teachings but not his politics, a source familiar with the case told CNN.
“Alawieh openly admitted this to CBP officers, as well as her support of Nasrallah,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. Alawieh also acknowledged to immigration officers that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, according to a source familiar with the case.
Alawieh’s attorney, Stephanie Marzouk, told reporters outside a federal courthouse in Boston, “Our client is in Lebanon, and we’re going to continue fighting to bring her back to the U.S. to see her patients, and we’re going to ensure the government follows the rule of law.”
The groundwork for these deportations predates the Trump administration. DHS has a history of using “flimsy or unsubstantiated” allegations to deport individuals in the immigration system, said Gupta, the American Immigration Council policy director.
“This is the most egregious final step in years of declining due process in the immigration system,” she said.
