MIAMI — Frengel Reyes Mota was supposed to be dealing with his ongoing asylum case as he fought for his chance to stay in the United States. Suddenly, he instead found himself locked up in a mega prison thousands of miles away.

“He’s in the torture prison in El Salvador,” Mark Prada, Reyes Mota’s lawyer, told Immigration Judge Jorge Pereira during a hearing Monday at the Krome Detention Center in western Miami-Dade County. The hearing had been scheduled before Reyes Mota was sent out of the country.

Reyes Mota is among the hundreds of Venezuelans that the Trump administration deported earlier this month through the use of extraordinary wartime powers based on a 1798 law. The administration sent them to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, claiming they are members of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

But the 24-year-old father does not have a criminal record in Venezuela. His U.S. immigration detention records are riddled with mistakes, raising questions about how reliable they are. He does not have tattoos and his family members deny he has any gang ties.

“He’s not a gang member, judge,” Prada said.

Had Reyes Mota still been in the United States, the hearing related to his asylum request would have been a commonplace matter. But his absence showcases the remarkable nature of the Venezuelans’ deportation to El Salvador. As lawyers argue the deportation flights were unlawful and violated a federal judge’s order, the immigration court system is navigating the case of an asylum seeker with pending immigration proceedings whom the Trump administration flew to another country without due process.

“We are facing a novel and extremely concerning situation where people’s immigration court proceedings are still pending but they are being disappeared from the United States without any lawful removal order,” said Prada. “This is an affront to the rule of law.”

Other lawyers have said in court documents challenging the deportations that their clients were also in pending asylum or other immigration proceedings.

‘Doesn’t deserve this injustice’

Reyes Mota and his wife decided to come to the United States because they saw no future for their child in Venezuela. In 2023, they became part of the 7 million Venezuelans who have fled economic turbulence, political repression and widespread poverty in their native country.

Liyanara Sánchez, Reyes Mota’s wife, described him as a reserved man, a loving husband, a dedicated father and pet lover. In the United States he painted houses for a living. He carefully budgeted to buy treats and clothes to spoil his adopted dog, Sacha.

“He’s the most beautiful person. If you need something, he’ll be there for you,” said Sánchez. “He’s a hard worker. He’s never left us without food or housing.”

At a young age, he chose to build a life with Sánchez, who was already a mother. To the boy, Reyes Mota was more than a stepfather — he was a true father, someone who stepped into the role with love and commitment, embracing the boy as his own, his family said.

“I need help for my father,” his 9-year-old son, who has learned English in the United States, told the Herald over audio messages. “My father is very nice with me. ... My father is not bad people. My father is very, very good people.”

On Feb. 4, Reyes Mota, who was living in Tampa, went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in the city for a required check-in. There, agents informed him that he was being placed in custody under suspicion of being associated with the Tren de Aragua gang, according to his family.

From detention, Reyes Mota asked his loved ones about whether Sacha was eating enough and how his son was doing in school. But they lost contact with him on the day before the deportation flights to El Salvador, on March 15. A week later, his name popped up on a list of Venezuelans who were being held at the Central American mega prison.

“He doesn’t deserve this injustice,” said a family member who requested to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety.

Back in the courtroom

At attorney Prada’s request the judge froze Reyes Mota’s asylum case for the time being. That way, he could eventually take it up again. That is, if he is ever able to return to the United States.

“We can agree that there was no removal order from this court or another court,” the judge said, noting that there was very little he could do.

The U.S. government claims on Reyes Mota’s I-213 form, a document the Department of Homeland Security uses to support that someone is deportable, that he “may be a Tren de Aragua associate.” But in those same documents, the government says he has no criminal records or immigration history in the United States. The government also uses someone else’s last name in several parts of the document, identifies him with female pronouns, and uses two different unique identification numbers that immigration authorities use to keep track of individuals, raising questions about the reliability of Trump officials’ accusations against him.

After Prada pointed out the mistakes and argued there is no evidence Reyes Mota was a Tren de Aragua member, the judge asked whether the government had made a mistake. Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security said this was not a hearing to analyze evidence but that they would look into it. However, there are no more hearings for the foreseeable future.

Reyes Mota’s family also provided to the Miami Herald government documents showing that Reyes Mota did not have any criminal record in Venezuela, and photos that show he does not have any tattoos. Immigration authorities have used the presence of tattoos to hold migrants on suspicions of being gang members.

On Wednesday afternoon, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was on her way to visit the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. She and other officials have touted the deportations as a feat of President Donald Trump’s agenda to keep Americans safe from violent criminals. Before her arrival she said on her X account she was going to see firsthand “where the worst-of-the-worst criminals are housed.”

But the Trump administration has admitted in federal court documents that “many” Venezuelans it accused of being dangerous gang members and deported through presidential wartime powers have no criminal records in the United States, although they argued it was only because they had only been in the U.S. briefly. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court in Washington upheld the block a lower court had imposed on the use of the war time powers to deport immigrants.

Several family members of Venezuelan men sent to El Salvador have also told the Herald their loved ones at the Terrorism Confinement Center are not part of Tren de Aragua. The Trump administration has also sent Venezuelans who had been granted refugee status to El Salvador. To receive refugee status, people must undergo extensive background checks.

Venezuelan nonprofit organizations have raised alarms about the “arbitrary detentions of Venezuelan migrants” in the United States, emphasizing that they had left their country fleeing a difficult situation where their lives could be in danger if they are returned.

“The mass and indiscriminate deportation of Venezuelans, without properly assessing their individual circumstances” makes them vulnerable, Foro por la Vida, a coalition of human rights groups in Venezuela, said in a statement.

Reyes Mota, a young man from a poverty-stricken city in a region rich in oil, wanted stability and peace for his family, his loved ones said. When he came to the United States, he was not expecting he would end up held indefinitely in a Central American prison that has been accused of human rights violations, or that the U.S. government would accuse him of belonging to a gang designated as a terrorist organization.

His loved ones insist that he is a man of integrity with no criminal record.

“Please, Trump, there are many innocent people in that jail,” his wife said, “and they are paying the price.”

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