Utah attorneys say 19-year-old was wrongly deported, beaten and tortured in El Salvador prison

A young man from Venezuela was on his way to starting a new chapter in the United States after he won permission from the federal government to enter the country in 2024. But instead, his attorneys say, he was incorrectly labeled a gang member at age 19 and flown with hundreds of other men to El Salvador’s CECOT prison — a “hell hole” where he was beaten and tortured.

“The Trump administration knowingly and unlawfully sent an innocent young man, our client, to one of the most brutal, notorious prisons in the world,” attorney James McConkie said Tuesday.

McConkie and two other attorneys took an early step toward filing a $56 million personal injury lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of their client, now 20 years old. They laid out their case in a notice of claim they sent Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other federal agencies. The Utah attorneys said they plan to follow up with a lawsuit in exactly six months.

The Department of Homeland Security stood by its actions and President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in a statement to Utah News Dispatch, disputing the allegation of a lack of due process.

“President Trump will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans. He will always put the safety of the American people first,” the statement said, without providing details about the case.

The agency continued: “We are 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. That would be insane.”

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A similar lawsuit was filed last week in Washington, D.C., by a Venezuelan man who was held at the same prison. Leon Rengel, who was detained in Texas, alleges ICE ignored his pending application for Temporary Protected Status.

In all, more than 250 Venezuelan men were brought from the U.S. to Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a year ago despite a federal judge’s order barring that action. The Trump administration had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to apply to Venezuelan nationals 14 and older who are suspected members of the gang Tren de Aragua.

When the 20-year-old arrived, the legal document states, the prison director told the men, “Welcome to hell. You are in a prison you will never leave. The only way out is dead. We will make sure of that.”

His family learned he was incarcerated there after his mother recognized him in video footage of the prison on the news, the attorneys said. They described physical, verbal and psychological abuse of their client over the course of four months last year, saying guards punched him and beat him with batons, kicked him in the chest when he sought medical care, and shot him at close range with a plastic bullet that cellmates had to extract from his shoulder.

“He observed guards raping and abusing the Venezuelan detainees and is still traumatized by it,” states the notice of claim.

The legal team criticized the federal government’s plans to turn a Salt Lake City warehouse into a detention center to hold up to 10,000 people, saying they believe abuses will occur there, too. 

The attorneys declined to identify their client on Tuesday, citing safety concerns for him and his family. They used a pseudonym at a news conference and redacted his name from a copy of the letter spelling out their legal claims. 

In 2023, their client and his family traveled through Guatemala and Honduras, including on foot, to Mexico, where they stayed for several months in a refugee shelter, according to the notice. The family obtained permission to enter the U.S. legally on humanitarian parole and crossed the border in San Diego in August 2024. They applied for asylum, with a hearing date set for 2028, according to the lawyers. 

They said a guard at the U.S. border incorrectly concluded the young man was affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang. He denied the allegation, but was arrested and detained while his parents, brother and sister-in-law were allowed to go to Utah, where they live now, the notice states. He was held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center for six months and appeared before a judge several times but “without real legal assistance” or documents explaining why he was being detained, according to his lawyers. 

While he was imprisoned in El Salvador, his family kept trying and failing to find him. He was released last July as part of a prisoner swap and now lives in Venezuela, in what his attorneys described as ongoing physical and emotional pain.  

“It’s hard to imagine a greater injustice than this one,” said attorney Brent Ward.

The legal team said they also filed the notice of claim against the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Justice. The agencies did not immediately provide comment.

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