ICE apparently mistook Jerce Reyes Barrios’ soccer tattoo and innocuous social media posts for gang support.

As has become all too common in the Trump regime, the stunning cruelty is mixed with stunning incompetence.

As The New Republic reported, Jerce Reyes Barrios’ attorney released a sworn statement declaring that Reyes Barrios fled Venezuela after being tortured with electric shocks and suffocation for marching against that country’s authoritarian rule. He applied for asylum in the U.S. and has an asylum hearing scheduled for April 17, 2025.

I can only imagine the horror for Reyes Barrios and his family when he was deported to El Salvador’s hellhole of a prison on March 15, without due process or any notice to his family or his attorney.

The sworn declaration of Linette Tobin, Reyes Barrios’ attorney, reveals just how viciously inept, unconscientious and un-American ICE’s behavior has been. First, she noted that Reyes Barrios was and is a professional soccer player who has never been arrested or charged with a crime. She said that the basis for the accusation that he is a Tren de Aragua gang member is based on two assertions: a tattoo that is an homage to his favorite soccer team and a hand gesture on social media that “means I Love You in sign language and is commonly used as a Rock&Roll symbol.” ICE could have and should have figured out that neither were truly incriminating.

Reyes Barrios is not the only one deported by an out-of-control Trump administration thumbing its nose at the legal protections our system and Constitution confer. The New Republic reports there are “many sworn statements from immigrants detained and immediately sent off to El Salvador as part of an agreement with the country, without any due process. Some, like Reyes Barrios, were detained merely because they have tattoos that look suspicious to immigration officials but are in fact harmless. Many had pending hearings about their asylum claims.”

There’s no telling who might be rounded up and disappeared next.