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Neri A.B.: Venezuelan asylum seeker deported to El Salvador prison over tattoo

Neri Jose Alvarado Borges, a bakery worker with an autism-awareness tattoo honoring his brother, was sent to El Salvador's CECOT despite holding asylum papers.

Mar 15, 2025Lewisville, TXCountry of origin: Venezuela

Neri A.B.: Venezuelan asylum seeker deported to El Salvador prison over tattoo
Photo via NBC News

Neri Jose Alvarado Borges, a Venezuelan migrant working at a bakery in Lewisville, Texas, was apprehended by ICE agents at his apartment complex in February 2025. Friends and family say immigration authorities claimed his tattoo, a rainbow-colored autism-awareness ribbon bearing his autistic brother's name, was proof he belonged to the gang Tren de Aragua, despite Borges telling them he had asylum papers. He was among hundreds of men deported on March 15 to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), one of the world's most dangerous prisons. The Dallas County Sheriff's Office said it had no record of Borges being charged with any crime locally, and his bakery employer described him as 'a good person' and 'a good brother.'

“If someone fell to the floor, they (the guards) will kick you repeatedly on the ground before you could get up. About 20 to 30 times. For about anything they would beat you up.”
— Neri Alvarado
“One moment I was super happy in the United States and the next one I was a prisoner in El Salvador. Life changes drastically from one moment to the next.”
— Neri Alvarado
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