Here’s what we know about that ‘innocent’ soccer player who says he’s not a Tren de Aragua member

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is pushing back on reports that two of the migrants deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador last week are innocent men.

One of the two men is, according to his supporters, allegedly just a gay makeup artist/barber and asylum seeker whose “benign” tattoos of snakes and flowers were mistaken by immigration authorities as gang tattoos.

“His tattoos are benign, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement submitted photos of his tattoos as evidence he is Tren de Aragua,” migrant Andrys Cedeno-Gil’s attorney Lindsay Toczylowski told the media.

“His [other] attorney planned to present evidence he is not, but never got the chance because our client has been disappeared,” she added.

Instead he got “disappeared” into El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, aka CECOT, when the Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act to justify flying hundreds of migrants there, including him.

harrowing. includes an account of a young man who sounds like he may be the person we profiled last night on MSNBC.

time.com/7269604/el-s…

www.advocate.com/news/gay-mak…

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— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.msnbc.com) March 21, 2025 at 3:08 PM

The other man, Jerce Reyes Barrios, is allegedly just a professional soccer player and asylum seeker whose own tattoos were also mistaken for those of the notorious gang Tren de Aragua.

“Agents who detained Jerce Reyes Barrios, 36, last September said his tattoo was ‘proof of gang membership,’ his attorney Linette Tobin wrote in a sworn statement this week,” according to USA Today.

“But the tattoo – a crown sitting atop a soccer ball with a rosary and the word ‘Dios,’ which means God in Spanish – was designed to look like the logo for Reyes Barrios’ favorite soccer team, Real Madrid,” the reporting continues.

Barrios reportedly fled Venezuela last year after he was detained and “tortured” for publicly demonstrating against the country’s ruthless socialist dictator, President Nicolás Maduro.

But when he crossed into the U.S. to seek asylum, he was immediately taken into custody over his tattoos, which immigration authorities assumed were gang-related.

36 yo Venezuelan Jerce Reyes Barrios was LEGALLY in the US. He was a professional football player in Venezuela with no criminal record. Nonetheless, he was arrested by ICE and sent to prison in El Salvador simply b/c he had a tattoo.https://t.co/Y7IcaiZhRs

— Joel Montfort (@jmontforttx) March 21, 2025

These two men’s stories have sparked massive backlash, with left-wing critics accusing the Trump administration of committing a human rights violation by shipping two allegedly innocent men to one of the most notorious prisons on Earth.

But in two statements submitted to Twitter/X, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin forcefully doubled down on the administration’s accusation that both men are gang members.

Regarding Cedeno-Gil, she claimed that his social media posts prove he definitely is a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.

No. DHS intelligence assessments go well beyond just gang affiliate tattoos.

This man’s own social media indicates he is a member of Tren de Aragua. https://t.co/UdVemUhAfq

— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) March 24, 2025

As for Barrios, McLaughlin alleged that not only are his tattoos “consistent” with TdA membership, but that his social media posts also prove that he’s a gang member.

Jerce Reyes Barrios was not only in the United States illegally, but he has tattoos that are consistent with those indicating TdA gang membership. His own social media indicates he is a member of the vicious TdA gang.

That all said, DHS intelligence assessments go beyond a… https://t.co/xFe48KzAYg

— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) March 20, 2025

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade has also expressed doubts about Barrios’ alleged innocence.

“As much as it pains me to say it, just because you’re a professional soccer player, it doesn’t mean that you’re a great person and weren’t up to no good when you escaped and got across our border,” he said Monday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

“If you were that good, you could have been transferred to another team,” he added.

He also argued for denying due process to alleged gang members like Cedeno-Gil and Barrios.

Listen:

Brian Kilmeade calls for the end of due process: “It’s not practical to think we can do due process on 8 million people … if we’re gonna give every one of these guys a day in a court and a lawyer, we can’t do it. They don’t deserve it.” pic.twitter.com/gyPt9QQw8T

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2025

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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