The 238: Some Were Innocent. All Were Silenced.

On March 15, 2025, the U.S. government deported 238 Venezuelan men to El Salvador under accusations of ties to Tren de Aragua, recently labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration. The deportees were flown on three separate flights and handed over to heavily armed Salvadoran forces. Upon Arrival in El Salvador: The men were forcibly removed from the aircraft, surrounded by masked guards with automatic rifles. They were publicly paraded onto buses, had their heads forcibly shaved, and were stripped of personal possessions. Once inside CECOT, El Salvador’s remote and infamous maximum-security prison, they were placed in mass holding cells under 24/7 surveillance, with no confirmed access to lawyers or family contact. Images circulated by the Salvadoran government depict the men shirtless, tattooed, shackled, and kneeling on concrete floors—a deliberate display of state control meant to reinforce a narrative of guilt without trial or process. Critical Facts: • 137 men were deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an archaic wartime law. • The remaining 101 were removed via standard immigration procedures. • U.S. officials have acknowledged that many deportees have no criminal history in the U.S. • Families and attorneys deny the alleged gang affiliations. • The U.S. government has not proven that all 238 men were in the country unlawfully. CALL TO ACTION: We demand a FULL AND IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION into the legal status, identities, and treatment of every individual deported. If EVEN ONE of these men was wrongly deported—innocent, legally present, or denied due process—then the operation constitutes a moral and constitutional violation. “If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?” — Matthew 18:12 The measure of justice is not how we treat the powerful—but how we protect the vulnerable. We must seek the one.