Bulwark Takes - SHOCKING: ICE Used Drunk Ex-Cop to Label Gay Man a “Gang Member”

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Tim Miller shares shocking new information on how Trump’s ICE relied on a disgraced former cop to accuse a gay Venezuelan stylist of being a dangerous gang member. Read the whole article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2025/04/10/fired-milwaukee-cops-report-helped-send-gay-stylist-to-el-salvador/83023882007/ Contact your Senators and Representative: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

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It's Tim Miller from The Bulwark. We have breaking news from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel updating the story of Andri, the gay Venezuelan stylist that the United States and the Donald Trump administration has sent to the torture prison in El Salvador without any due process, claiming that he's a member of the Trenda Aragua gang. And we have a new piece of information about why the tattoos on his forearms with the two crowns. Supposedly, crown tattoos are associated with Trendor. Well, experts say that's not true, but that was one of the pieces of evidence provided. And we've got some new information. It was according to documents reviewed by USA Today. The report, there was a report that identified Andri as Trenza Aragua, and it was signed. These reports have to be signed by an officer.

And the person that signed Andri's report testifying that he was Trenza Aragua is a disgraced former Milwaukee cop with very serious credibility issues. His name is Charles Cross Jr. His reputation was, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Senator, his reputation was so bad, prosecutors flagged him on a list of police who had been accused of lying, breaking the law, or acting in a way that erodes their credibility to testify in Milwaukee County. He was later fired from his position in Milwaukee after he drove his car into a family home while he was wasted.

He was also being investigated at that same time for claiming overtime he hadn't earned. USA Today and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are trying to get more information on all of that. But essentially what we got here is a guy that was run out of the Milwaukee Police Corps for questionable behavior. And then he took a job at Core Civic, which is a, I guess, private organization that runs many of the immigrant detention senators on behalf of ICE as one of the private prison contractors. His job actually is identifying

Venezuelan migrants as members of Trenda Aragua. So let's just get this straight. The contractor who's been hired by ICE to identify whether asylees, refugees who are coming to this country are trained at Aragua as somebody who had previously been run out of a job, allegedly for lying, and also for drunkenly driving his car

into a family home. And he was somebody that was on a list, somebody that was not trustworthy as a police officer to testify in cases on behalf of the district attorney, which usually works closely with police officers. So that is bad, I would say.

I would say that calls into question his credibility. And it speaks to why we should have fucking due process in this country. We don't just take one random guy's word. A contractor, 62-year-old guy who was contracted with ICE from Milwaukee. Who is this guy? Why is this guy going to be the one man judge and jury to determine whether somebody is trying to Aragua? The haphazard nature would be an embarrassing,

it would be a shame, it would be worth outrage and condemnation if the stakes were lower. You know, if this was some other government program, if it was the DMV, was determining who's eligible for various, you know, government subsidies, right? Like a lot of things governments do that you know maybe aren't as in ship shape as they should be but in this case where the stakes are whether a person has a chance to live free in the united states or whether they are shackled and sent to a foreign prison where they are not allowed to contact their family or friends or lawyers where they sit 23 hours a day in a in a cell jam-packed with other gang members where they lay on a metal slat like where they are tortured and slapped and beaten how could you possibly be this haphazard how could you possibly like not have other checks

and balances in this system like why it is this is despicable what our government has done like the fact that this is you know the lead investigator here is this man charles cross age 62 like who has huge credibility issues like bring this man back bring andre back frankly bring all of them back and put them through a normal process okay like this is fundamentally un-american this is wrong it's like across all levels it is morally wrong it goes against the constitution it's also executed like the fucking keystone cops it's like a joke just in in the manner in which they acted this out. There is no competency here. There is no empathy. Like there is no nothing.

We've shown you the pictures of Andre, but I want to show you one more time. This is it. This is the guy. This is the guy. Charles Cross Jr. Looked at this guy and said, he's trying to Aragwa.

He signed for it based on his tattoos that are referencing the three kings festival in his hometown in venezuela based on whatever whim came across this disgraced it is horrific. And once again, I'm asking you, contact your senators, contact your members of Congress. Tell them, we must bring these men home. We must give them due process. We must make sure that this country lives up to the fundamental principles

that make this country what it is. If we allow these men to rot in an El Salvador gulag, we are no different from the communists, from the Stalinists, from the fascists. We must bring these men home. This is the latest coming from USA Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Thank you for your reporting. We'll put a link here in the show notes so folks can go read the full story themselves. Everybody else, subscribe to the feed.

We will be seeing you soon.