How we reported “You’re Here Because of Your Tattoos”

This month, Noah Lanard and Isabela Dias won the Sidney Award for “You’re Here Because of Your Tattoos,” a Mother Jones feature revealing that young Latino men are being deported without due process because of innocuous tattoos. The Trump administration falsely claims the tattoos indicate affiliation with Tren de Aragua, a notorious Venezuelan gang.

This is an interview conducted by the Sidney Hillman Foundation describing how Noah and Isabela reported the story.

How did you find out that men were being deported to Venezuela because of their tattoos?

Isabela: On Saturday, March 15, a day after President Donald Trump quietly signed a proclamation invoking the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport alleged gang members without due process, the administration flew three deportation planes to El Salvador. Shortly after, we came across Spanish-language reports and social media posts from families in Venezuela who were growing suspicious that their relatives—many of whom had called to say they were being deported to their home country—had instead been taken to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.  

We then started to message the families and log the names of the men we could find on a spreadsheet, even before the list identifying the 238 Venezuelans sent to the mega-prison became public. One of the first cases we looked into was that of aspiring musician Arturo Suárez Trejo. His wife had recognized him in a photo the Salvadoran government published of the detained men, who had their heads shaved and were put in white prison uniforms, because of his tattoos. We kept hearing different versions of that from several of the relatives we contacted and spoke with. The men had tattoos, but their families were adamant that they had no ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua or, in most cases, any criminal history. 

Describe these tattoos?

Isabela: The tattoos of the men whose families and friends we spoke with can be described as anodyne. One young man, Neri Alvarado Borges, for example, has a colorful tattoo of an autism awareness ribbon. His 15-year-old brother has autism. And, back in Venezuela, Neri taught swimming classes to children with developmental disabilities. Through our reporting, we learned that, according to Neri’s boss, an ICE agent specifically told Neri that he was being targeted because of his tattoos. 

We also wrote about another case of a father who was living in North Carolina and was detained by ICE during a routine appointment in January just days before his now two-month-old daughter was born. His wife said the officers kept him to investigate his tattoos: a rose and a crown with his name on it that he got when he was 15 years old. As an immigration lawyer told us in our partnership radio episode with Reveal, these are commonplace tattoos you would see “at any coffeeshop” in America, and by no means indicative of membership in TdA. 

Describe the facility that these men have been deported to. What kind of conditions are they being housed in and how long can they expect to stay there?

Noah: CECOT, or the Terrorism Confinement Center, is rightfully infamous. Men are stacked in bunks four high without mattresses, sheets, or pillows. According to CNN, they are generally kept in overcrowded cell blocks for all but 30 minutes a day. Letters and phone calls to family members—much less in-person visits—are prohibited. Human Rights Watch explained in a recent court declaration that the Salvadoran government has boasted that people at the prison “will never leave.” The group added that it is not aware of any cases of people being released from the facility, which opened in 2023. The Salvadoran government often celebrates the cruelty at CECOT in highly-produced propaganda videos like the one released last month when Venezuelans arrived from the United States.

As to how long people sent from the United States can expect to remain there, the unfortunate answer is: We don’t know. Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney in the Alien Enemies Act cases, has said it is possible that these men might never be released. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last week that the people sent there “should stay there for the rest of their lives.” On the other hand, Salvadoran President Bukele and the Trump administration could theoretically change their mind any day and allow the Venezuelans at CECOT to return to their home country. This uncertainty is part of the torture for families with loved ones there—as it surely is for the men themselves. 

Is there any evidence that Tren de Aragua has initiation tattoos in the first place?

Isabela: Several experts have explained that tattoos are not a reliable marker of membership in Tren de Aragua, which is a loosely organized group without a clear hierarchy and, it’s worth repeating, not perpetrating an “invasion” of the United States as the Trump administration has claimed. Instead, tattoos are more associated with El Salvador’s MS-13 gang. In court filings and public statements, US officials have disputed the idea that they have relied primarily on tattoos—or clothing and hand gestures—to identify suspected gang members to be sent to El Salvador—but we now know that officers appear to have used a score-based system called “Alien Enemy Validation Guide” whereby having a tattoo accounted for four points out of the eight needed to be deemed deportable. And internal documents from different federal agencies also cast a doubt on tattoos—such as those referencing the Chicago Bulls or Michael Jordan—as a credible signifier of gang affiliation. 

Can you give us any updates on the men featured in the story?

Noah: All of the men sent to CECOT by the Trump administration—including the men featured in our story—are still believed to be there. To the best of our knowledge, none of the families have heard anything from their loved ones. As more time passes, the reality that the Trump administration is not planning to rectify its obvious mistakes seems to be setting in. I, understandably, now sense more hopelessness in my interactions with the relatives of people at CECOT. They’ve done most of what they can: They’ve gathered documents showing that their relatives did not have criminal histories in Venezuela; they’ve found photos of their relatives’ tattoos to show they are not gang-related; and they’ve shared their stories with multiple American and Venezuelan reporters. But their loved ones are still there. 

What impact might the Supreme Court ruling on the fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia have on the guys in your story?

Noah: The Supreme Court ruled last week in a unanimous decision that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from Salvadoran custody and “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” That means bringing him back to the United States.

But the administration is acting in bad faith by effectively arguing that the decision gives them the authority to do nothing to get Abrego Garcia back on US soil. In doing so, they are openly defying rulings from District Court Judge Paula Xinis, whose initial order to return Abrego Garcia the Supreme Court largely upheld last week. 

The standoff reached a new low on Monday when Bukele visited the White House and claimed that he didn’t have the power to “smuggle” a “terrorist” into the United States. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has made it clear that it is not planning to do anything to get Bukele to release Abrego Garcia. Both sides absurdly act as if they are powerless to free a man sent to one of the world’s worst prisons in error.

Noah: The Supreme Court ruled last week in a unanimous decision that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from Salvadoran custody and “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” That means bringing him back to the United States.

But the administration is acting in bad faith by effectively arguing that the decision gives them the authority to do nothing to get Abrego Garcia back on US soil. In doing so, they are openly defying rulings from District Court Judge Paula Xinis, whose initial order to return Abrego Garcia the Supreme Court largely upheld last week. 

The standoff reached a new low on Monday when Bukele visited the White House and claimed that he didn’t have the power to “smuggle” a “terrorist” into the United States. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has made it clear that it is not planning to do anything to get Bukele to release Abrego Garcia. Both sides absurdly act as if they are powerless to free a man sent to one of the world’s worst prisons in error.