Venezuelan man says his rose tattoos got him deported to El Salvador's brutal prison: I thought my life had ended'

"I thought that my life had somehow ended, he said of the shock of landing there and the harsh treatment from the moment of arrival. Now free, he is one of more than 100 of those deportees whom a federal court in the US has ruled must be allowed to return to American soil to be given the due process Judge James Boasberg says they were denied when they were deported."

"I would like to explain that these two tattoos, these two roses, are for my younger sisters, they are twins, and have nothing to do with any gangs, Munoz Pinto said in Spanish. When I was detained in the US, an immigration officer saw the roses and immediately said you're a member of the Tren de Aragua' and I told him that I had been a college student. That I wanted to work and help my family."

Luis Munoz Pinto, a 27-year-old Venezuelan, was among more than 250 men deported by the Trump administration from the United States to Cecot, a brutal terrorism mega-prison in El Salvador, on accusations of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. The deportations occurred in March without proper due process. Now free, Munoz Pinto and over 100 other deportees have been ruled by federal court Judge James Boasberg to have the right to return to the US for due process hearings. The US State Department opposes this ruling. Munoz Pinto claims his tattoos, which authorities cite as gang evidence, are actually tributes to his twin sisters. He was a robotics engineering student in Venezuela before his deportation and seeks to clear his name and prove his innocence.

Read at www.theguardian.com