A Venezuelan migrant took the first step Thursday toward suing the United States for what he says was his wrongful detention and removal to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, 27, spent four months in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, where he said he was beaten and abused. He filed an administrative claim Thursday with the Department of Homeland Security, accusing U.S. immigration agencies of removing him without due process.
It is the first such claim to be filed by one of the 252 Venezuelan men who were expelled and sent to El Salvador in March, his lawyers said, and is a necessary step before taking legal action against the U.S. government in federal court.
Rengel, who is seeking $1.3 million in damages, was released last week as part of a prisoner swap between Venezuela and the United States. He is now living in Venezuela.
“I want to clear my name,” he said. “I am not a bad person.”
The detention of Venezuelan men in El Salvador in March was one of the first high-profile efforts to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations. His administration has accused the migrants of belonging to a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.
Some of the deported migrants had criminal records, including at least 32 who were convicted or charged with serious offenses, but a New York Times investigation found that most of the men did not.
The Department of Homeland Security defended Rengel’s deportation. He was “deemed a public safety threat as a confirmed associate of the Tren de Aragua gang and processed for removal from the U.S.,” Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.
Rengel said he has no connection to the gang. His claim, filed with the help of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights group, could be the first of many. Its CEO, Juan Proaño, says it plans to file dozens more claims on behalf of men who were sent to the prison in El Salvador.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2025 The New York Times
