A Venezuelan national who said he was deported from the U.S. and held at a notorious El Salvador prison is now suing the Trump administration.
Neiyerver Adrián León Rengel filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the U.S. seeking at least $1.3 million in damages for “false imprisonment, abuse of process, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress,” according to the Democracy Defenders Fund, which is representing the 28-year-old.
It comes after Rengel detailed these allegations in an administrative claim filed last year.
The latest complaint alleges that Rengel was “wrongly identified as a member of the gang Tren de Aragua … repeatedly denied due process, falsely imprisoned, intentionally deceived, and — ultimately — illegally sent to El Salvador in blatant violation of a court order.”
Rengel was detained by federal immigration agents in March 2025. When he was arrested, “the only justification offered by ICE officers was that Plaintiff’s tattoos indicated his membership in [Tren de Aragua],” the complaint states.
Rengel has denied any connection to the gang. He told CBS News in a recent interview: “I’ve never been a gang member, nor a member of a criminal group.”
His tattoos “include the names Sandra and Isabela—his mother and daughter—a barbershop, and a tiger, rather than any symbols connected with [Tren de Aragua],” the filing notes.
The lawsuit alleges Rengel was told he would be deported to Venezuela — but was instead placed on a plane to El Salvador and held at the country’s CECOT prison.
“For four months, [Rengel] languished in CECOT, during which time he was beaten by guards, subjected to inhumane and overcrowded conditions as well as extreme psychological trauma, denied adequate medical care, and held without contact with his family or any legal counsel,” the complaint states.
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, which assisted with the case, said in a statement Rengel “deserves his day in court.”
“What happened to Adrián Rengel is government-sanctioned torture and a failure to recognize his humanity because he happened to be an immigrant,” Proaño added.
When reached for comment, a DHS official told The Independent Rengel “entered our country illegally in 2023 from Venezuela and is an associate of Tren De Aragua.”
“Tren de Aragua is vicious gang that rapes, maims, and murders for sport. This illegal alien was deemed a public safety threat as a confirmed associate of the Tren de Aragua gang and processed for removal from the U.S,” the official said.
The DHS official also said the agency is “confident in our law enforcement’s intelligence, and we aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one.”
“There IS due process for these terrorists who all have final deportation orders. Further, we have a stringent law enforcement assessment in place that abides by due process under the U.S. Constitution,” the official added.
The Independent has contacted the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Justice Department and the office of El Salvador’s president for comment.
Rengel was among the 252 Venezuelans deported to CECOT last year, according to Reuters. He was then released in July 2025 and sent to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap agreement.
The DHS official said the Trump administration deported “nearly 300 Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorists to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) Prison in El Salvador, where they no longer pose a threat to the American people.”
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