The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Jerce Reyes Barrios was a pro soccer player in Venezuela — an underdog living a sports-movie dream. Then he became an immigrant to Trump's America: The administration accused Jerce of being a gang member. ICE flew him to a terrorist prison in El Salvador. And his family hasn't spoken to him since. All of this... for a tattoo about his favorite football club. Paola Ramos reports on how Jerce escaped one dictator, only to be trapped by another, thanks to the very collapse of American democracy itself. • Read Paola Ramos' book, "Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America" https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741645/defectors-by-paola-ramos/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre and today we're going to find out what this sound is. Help Jersey, who was a great trainer for us, guide him wherever he is. Right after this ad. You're listening to Draft Kings Network. Your fandom for Real Madrid is... It's real in the sense that I grew up in Madrid in the 90s when it's sort of exploding. I played basketball. Like, basketball was my thing. But there was no way to not love Real Madrid as a kid during those years. Now you had, like, everyone sort of was pulled into the game.

They incentivized young kids growing up around Spain to be a frontrunner. You felt it in the streets. You felt it everywhere. It was amazing. Watching this team, this club, excuse me, come to power, for people who don't know anything about Real Madrid, don't give a fuck about soccer, what was that like? That was like to me like 1998, I believe, is when it happens. I think I'm like 10 years old.

It's one of the first times that my mom lets me stay up super late. And we're all watching the Real Madrid team parading through the streets of Madrid, ending up in this huge fountain called Cibeles. They take off their shirts and they're just like drinking champagne. Campeones del mundo, lo dice la letra en inglés,

we are the champions, champions of the world. There's this like turning point, no? In who Real Madrid is. Yes, they become globally popular. They're globally a brand that lots of people know and care deeply about. Who didn't grow up in Madrid like you? When it comes to your favorite player though, the soccer player that you were most entranced by on this team, who would that be? Oh, I remember Iker Casillas.

And I'll tell you, even as gay as you can get, but Iker Casillas, everyone loved Iker Casillas, even my old little young gay self. I am as straight as it gets, and I also love- So we're going to love each other. Iker Casillas. When I play on FIFA, I'm like, this goalie is the one I want. But he couldn't get it beyond the trailing leg of the Spanish captain. Very handsome.

Yeah, I believe that too. When I thought about who do I need to help us understand and report this story, I was turning to you before I knew that you had any affiliation with Real Madrid as a concept. And now it feels almost inevitable that I would have had you work on something for weeks. And thank you so much for being here and for doing that. Of course. Because it's one of the biggest stories going on, certainly in America, but also Latin America and also the world. You can make it as grandiose as you want, but it begins with something that's quite specific and quite small, technically.

We're literally talking about a tattoo. This is a story about the tattoo from hell. We're talking about 2018, the small town of Venezuela. And this tattoo is aimed by this guy called Victor. And during that time, one of his best friends, Jersey Reyes Barrios, walks in, and he asks for a tattoo of the Real Madrid, the favorite soccer team of Jersey Barrios.

Herce is someone that ends up becoming a goalie and ends up becoming a professional soccer player in Venezuela, but his very favorite soccer player is also Iker Casillas from Real Madrid. I mean, that was his dream and his idol growing up. He has a bunch of other tattoos. He has musical notes, a map of Venezuela, a goalkeeper, a hand with the pinky and the index fingers going up.

I'm imagining like the rock and roll thing, right? A pinky and index finger up. Exactly. That's exactly that. And he also has tattoos of his two daughters. Mama, Papa. Thank you. Mama, coffee. Gracias. De situ.

De situ. That's who Gersi is. And so he walks in and he wants a new one. And his specific desire for this new tattoo is going to be what? It's all based on his love for Real Madrid. And he asked for something very simple, and that is a ball with a crown sitting on top. If you zoom into this tattoo,

it's the ball, a crown on top, a rosary. But the Real Madrid part, I guess to do the little bit of Spanish translation I could do, Real means royal. That's right. And in this specific case, Real Madrid, more than any other club, has claims to being the royal franchise of Spain. This is sort of its own heritage, is that it does have a crown as

certainly the most distinguishing part of its own logo. When Dirsi walks into that tattoo parlor, he's specifically thinking about this team. And that's what the tattoo artist will tell you, that when he walks in and he gets this inked in his skin, it is all to sort of romanticize El Rey Madri. He might have been thinking at this moment about Iker Casillas as a goalie himself. Literally, he's probably thinking about that, but you know what he was not thinking about in that moment?

That is the fact that this tattoo would years later turn him into this alleged criminal gang member. And that that tattoo would essentially make him disappear. If you're looking to add something special to your next celebration, try Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royale. This smooth, flavorful cognac is crafted from the finest grapes and aged to perfection, giving you rich notes of oak and caramel with every sip. Whether you're celebrating a big win or simply enjoying some cocktails with family and friends, Remy Martin 1738 is the perfect spirit to elevate any occasion.

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Okay, so whether or not you're a sports fan, much less a fan of Real Madrid, I'm gonna guess you've heard about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. For anyone just joining us, we're following breaking developments in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. A Maryland resident who officials admit was expelled by mistake. And then they looked and on his knuckles he had MS-13.

There's a dispute over that. Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. He had MS-13 on his knuckles he had MS-13. There's a dispute over that. Wait a minute. He had MS-13 on his knuckles tattooed. He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way. But let's move on. Hundreds of illegal criminal gang members from Venezuela

getting dropped off at a mega prison in El Salvador. They get free haircuts. That's a good thing. President Trump deported them under the Alien Enemies Act. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, signed into law by President John Adams, allows non-citizens to be deported without due process during times of war. Are you planning to do more deportations? I can tell you this, these were bad people. That was a bad group of, as I say, lumbar areas.

All of which is alarming, to say the least, to the point that even Republican loyalists to Trump, like Senator John Kennedy, for instance, the other day on Meet the Press, have called the ordeal, quote, a screw up. A screw up. Mr. Garcia was not supposed to be sent to El Salvador. He was sent to El Salvador. Now the case of Mr. Garcia and the men sent to El Salvador with him is held up in the courts right now,

including the Supreme Court, as we wait to see, I suppose, if the rule of law under the Trump administration is gonna hold. But meanwhile, we have been promised something. We have been promised that this is not a pattern. I don't see any pattern here. I mean, you know, someday things may fly, but I doubt it. But there is a pattern emerging. And you may have heard about this part too. These other horrifying ordeals for these alleged gang members. Among hundreds of alleged gang members deported this past week to El Salvador was a Venezuelan

migrant with a job and no criminal record. Gay makeup artist with no criminal record in this country or in his home country, Venezuela. At least 44 of the individuals who appear on the list obtained by CBS News do not appear to have criminal records in the US or Venezuela. And in fact, this administration this week has decided to display the faces of these alleged terrorists on the lawn of the White House itself, just in time, as it happens, for Saquon Barkley and the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles to visit and celebrate their big Super Bowl win. All of which helps explain why the person sitting in our studio today is the Emmy-winning

journalist Paola Ramos, most recently the author of a book called Defectors, The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America, and Paola is here with me because she has been reporting on immigration for a decade now. And in fact, she just returned this week from the jungles of the Darien Gap between Latin America and South America. And she has also reported for Vice on the exact intersection of where our story is going to take us today. Tattoos, abductions, and now sports.

This is a sports story in which we have a disappearing soccer player. A mystery around this tattoo from hell as you called it. And so I want to further push the sports part of it. I just want to scout a report on who Herce is, where he came from, him, the person. So everyone you talk to when they mention the name Jersey is that he was sweet. He's this very sweet, kind, young boy. He grows up in northern Venezuela in a town called Machique. It's literally known for like for cows.

In other words, it's rural. Everyone says that he loved to draw. He likes to dance salsa. I talked to his sister, Jorgelis Reyes, who's still living in that town, by the way. Even talking to her was a little bit hard just because of the internet connection. And the power was out a lot of times. But she still really, really wanted to talk about her brother. When she talks about her brother, she remembers him loving baseball as a very young kid.

she talks about her brother, she remembers him loving baseball as a very young kid. But the interesting thing is that Jersey's dad is a goalie. So, Jersey kind of grows up watching his dad playing soccer. And then he starts to sort of love the game and love the sport. I want to be in an archery, just like you are. Dersi's father starts training his son. Slowly, Dersi kind of forgets about baseball. My thing is not baseball. He's completely focused on soccer.

This love for Real Madrid starts, this obsession with the game starts. One of the things that his sister told me repeatedly was, football, football, football. I mean, literally when his sister talks about Jersey, it's just football. That's literally all that she talks about because that's the image that comes to her mind. literally all that she talks about, because that's the image that comes to her mind. The thing about Yerse, and that's what his sister describes,

is that he kept going, you know? Like he kept fighting for this dream. He starts training with one of his dad's former teammates. It's this coach named Yerse Jose Villoria. My name is Yerse Jose Villoria. This coach is still in the very same town where Jersey grew up. So describe what we're seeing here, this place that he grew up. What was I think beautiful about this conversation that I had with the coach is that he was just

like kind of, he couldn't wait to get out of that room and show me the field where he watched Dierci grow up. So there's this moment where he literally like takes me out. He's like, come with me. And he walks down the street and he starts, you know, he flips his camera the other way. And he literally shows me in this very humble field in the middle of nowhere. And you can see there's literally like not much around there. But this gives them so much pride. This gives them so much dignity. And this is the field where this coach watches Jersey grow up.

the field where this coach watches Yersey grow up. So when he's climbing the ladder, what does his ascent look like through soccer to the pros? He joins these like travel teams, so he gets to travel across Venezuela, different regions, different cities. He then becomes a starting keeper on a champion under 16 national team. He actually made it to a tournament in Barcelona. So I'm just like picturing this. That's the dream. Exactly, like this kid that like is obsessed

with Real Madrid and he eventually makes it pro. No, in the Venezuelan pro football league. I'm imagining a goalkeeper, the pressure that you have to not fuck this up. That's what the coach kept talking about. El ultimo torneo. You know, this like specific moment in the specific era where Gersed leads his team to the final of the third division. The third division is a division you want to escape if you have bigger dreams for yourself.

And on the line in this game that you guys were talking about is promotion to the second division, which is a huge deal. From what he describes, it comes down to penalty kicks. All this tension building up, whether they make it or not, depends on these penalty kicks. Then what the coach says is that Jersey's team scores, so all eyes are on him. Right? Everyone is...

It's a lonely thing. Yeah. Will he stop the next goal or not? He just needs to do this one save. Crowd goes wild. That he becomes a hero. That he becomes this idol. And that I think is one of the reasons why to this day

he's so beloved and remembered. Because he proves he can take this small, humble team to the next level, and that's exactly what he does. And when I look at the record that Hersey assembled as his goalkeeper, it doesn't stop in the second division. He makes it to the first division. And at this point, what happens to him? Life gets in the middle. I mean, I think the reality of Venezuela in that time is that many people like Herce have

to leave. So Herce is a soccer player, but he also suddenly becomes an immigrant. And he goes to Colombia to find better economic opportunities to support his two daughters, to support his father, who needed a very expensive treatment for a glaucoma that he had to deal with. So in 2016, just he's 26 years old, he goes to Bogota, to Colombia,

he finds money and he keeps playing in Colombia because that love for soccer is always there. He kind of keeps in touch with this soccer club that sees him growing up. He returns to that beautiful field that the coach shows me on his phone. And so not only does Jersey come back, but he starts coaching some of the very same kids

that grew up in the same town that Jersey does. The coaches say that every time that he would come back from Colombia, he would visit the soccer club, and he would train the kids and he would train some of the goalies. He would train the kids and he would train some of the goalies. He would train the youth league. He had no ego. No, he sort of never forgot where he came from. When you reference that he is from a complicated Venezuela, explain what that means in terms of the decision that is made to go and help his

family by leaving. How uncommon is a decision like that in the context we're describing? I'll put it this way, you know, the coach at one point tells me that when he looks at his team, he sees, in his words, una crisis de fútbol. That means that at one point he sees that most of his soccer players are gone. That he doesn't have his soccer players are gone. That he doesn't have enough soccer players to literally play games. And the reason why is because many of them have had to flee Venezuela,

not to leave Venezuela. And the same reasons why in Dercy did to get better opportunities and to find things elsewhere that they just couldn't find in Venezuela to immigrate, not to get out of the country. And we're very much involved with the Venezuela crisis. It's a horrible thing, a horrible situation. It's been brewing for many years. A country that for many years at this point has been in the midst of a political and economic crisis.

Breaking news out of Venezuela, where the political and humanitarian crisis has reached a boiling point. So this football crisis, in the context of the larger crisis then of Venezuela, for people who are not familiar with the character of Maduro. How would you introduce him? Nicolás Maduro is someone that many people in Venezuela and around the world would call a dictator. President of Venezuela, Maduro, the now dictator. Dictator Maduro.

Nicolas Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power. Because he's someone that continues the legacy of Hugo Chavez. Chavez has raised Nicolas Maduro to the seat of power. But he's particularly known for his political repression. For the good ones, we are very good. For the bad ones, we are fearsome warriors. The idea of having civil liberties and rights and freedom of press does not exist in Venezuela. On top of that, and I think this is when it becomes very real for people like Jersey and these soccer players.

You may remember that Venezuela is a country in chaos right now. The economy has crashed. People can't afford food and medicine. Telling Venezuelans that humanitarian aid is part of a conspiracy to chaos right now. The economy has crashed, people can't afford food and medicine, telling Venezuelans that humanitarian aid is part of a conspiracy to overthrow his government, all of which has left Venezuelans feeling so hopeless. For the last seven-plus years, there's been over seven million people that have left Venezuela, that have migrated.

And so I'll put it this way, many of the images that you may remember from those thousands of asylum seekers, Thousands of asylum seekers are still there waiting and hoping in makeshift camps and shelters. Many of them were Venezuelans escaping the Nicolás Maduro regime. We're talking about a guy in Maduro who, by the way, isn't a friend of Donald Trump. Trump casts himself as an anti-Maduro, anti-socialist, anti-communist American president. And so Nicolás Maduro is one of Donald Trump's biggest enemies. This is where Jersey's fleeing from. He's fleeing from Maduro.

And so to fit Herce into this political matrix in which there's Trump and Maduro on opposite sides, where does he fit when it comes to how explicit his beliefs are about what's happening? So, Dierci did something that thousands of Venezuelans did. Dierci decides to take the streets. Dersi decides to take the streets. And it was really brave knowing that in February 2024 and in March 2024, he decides to protest against the Nicolás Maduro regime. And I say that's very brave because we're talking about a regime known for having political

prisoners. So in the second demonstration that Dersi participates in, things get really dark. From what we've been told, after one of these protests, he's taken to this clandestine building. And what does it look like behind the scenes when that happens? Allegedly, his treatment involved electric shocks and suffocation. So we've been told that Dersie was threatened by the Nicolas Maduro regime.

That if he were ever to march again, that he would be quote, disappeared. That he would spend the rest of his life in prison. And I've been told that Dersie was really worried that this could actually happen, because it has been happening. And so just to state as clearly as we can as well, what is, dare I say, his criminal record? None. None whatsoever. He has no criminal records in Venezuela. So if he also has a clean sheet when it comes to his legal standing, I'm trying to imagine what the

case would be against him. How does he live his life? How out here is he when it comes to being reckless even in a non-criminal way? I mean the first thing that his family would say and that his sister says is that he's a good guy, right? This is we're talking about someone that doesn't drink and he doesn't smoke. He literally has a record of having countless jobs on the field playing soccer and his life was and is football. But like I said there is no criminal record of Jersey in Venezuela. The only crime that he committed in the eyes of the government was protesting. And so now I'm returning to that image of people trying to get the **** out.

And I'm imagining the decision that they're saying is facing, given that the man in power and his administration are seemingly, allegedly, not just electrocuting him, suffocating him, but now threatening him to never do anything like this again. And so what is the choice he has in front of him? Yeah, so a little bit after March, 2024, he kind of is faced with a decision that many migrants are faced with. Do you leave or do you stay?

In his case, he's facing, of course, sort of this political repression of Venezuela. He's facing the reality of his parents, his dad that needs this glaucoma treatment. And he comes to the conclusion that he has to leave Venezuela and head towards the United States. There he goes through the Darien jungle. Now remember, the Darien jungle is over 10 miles of one of the most dangerous places

that I've been to in my life. He makes his way towards Mexico. Mexico, also from what I've been told by his sister, becomes a very, very dangerous place for Jersey. There's thousands of asylum seekers like him that have to live in limbo. He then goes through the legal system to apply for asylum and to enter the United States. What does he do?

He opens his CBP-1 application. Download the CBP-1 app from the App Store or Google Play. The app is free. The app will redirect you to... Right, so he's downloaded the official app. This is how it worked. And this was under the Biden administration, by the way. This is just last year, the spring of last year.

It takes him approximately five months from when he leaves Venezuela until he enters the United States through the CBP-1 application. And so he gets not asylum, but an appointment to make his case that he is deserving of the refuge that the United States is offering. Exactly. So here comes September 1st, 2024. Dersie presents himself at the border.

He's permitted to enter legally, immediately, but then he's placed inside an ICE detention center in San Diego. The waiting room is an ICE detention facility in San Diego. That's right. Dersie at this point is waiting in limbo for a month. He's waiting for his scheduled immigration hearing, and he's there for so long that by January 16th, 2025, he actually spends his birthday inside this detention center. He turns 36 years old inside. And that is a useful date for us because now,

tracking quite neatly alongside January of this year, is the changeover in power from Joe Biden to Donald Trump. I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. And so as sort of Trump is rising, Jersey's inside this detention center, waiting for this alleged immigration hearing to take place. Fast forward to March 14th, 2025. Jersey's sister told us that she got a call from her brother to wish her a happy birthday.

Well, the first thing she talks about is that she notices something different in Jersey's voice. something different in Jersey's voice. That she notices that he's shaky and nervous and that he's not being himself. And then Jersey asked about one of his daughters. Right. His two kids. He's able to talk to one of them. He says, what are you eating? And the daughter responds, I'm eating cheese daddy.

I love you. Jersey says back to his daughter, I love you too. And then he says, I don't have much time to talk. And that's the very last time that Jersey is able to talk to his family. Jersey, Jersey me llamo, ya son mes hoy. Boxing's biggest weekend is finally here, and Draft King's sportsbook is bringing the heat. On Friday, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez throw down in Times Square.

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In New York, call 877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-77777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resorting Kansas, 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voighton, Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co.au. So Paola, this is a story I just need to remind everybody that started and is conceivably about gangs. And we now know that Jerese has lost contact with his family, they

haven't spoken to him, we are closer now to the present tense and I just want to know where the f**k are the gangs in this story that you've reported for us because they have been noticeably absent so far. For a reason, right? So the gangs are part of the story in a very important way. Now the reason why Díaz-Se disappears is because the Trump administration claims that that Real Madrid tattoo that you and I talked about at the beginning, that tattoo is what allegedly makes him a part of El Tren de Aragua. This morning we're learning new details about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

He's arguably the most ruthless, violent, menacing gang now designated as terrorists. These are now terrorists. This accusation that he's a member of this gang, according to a declaration that I'm going to quote from here, is based on two things. First, he has a tattoo on his arm of a crown sitting atop a soccer ball with a rosary and the word Dios, which we began the show with. And the Department of Homeland Security alleges that this is proof of gang membership. This tattoo from hell. Literally. This young man that has no criminal records in either Venezuela or the United States,

that has never even set foot outside a detention center in the United States, this man is now being accused of being part of El Tren Daragua because of this Real Madrid tattoo. He's not the only person in the world of professional soccer who has this tattoo or something quite like it. No less than Neymar himself has a tattoo on his back right calf. The third most popular athlete in the world probably behind Ronaldo and Messi, you know, depending on how you put Lebron in there.

I put Neymar on the medal stand. He has this, Paola. Look there it is. Right? Soccer ball with crown on top. Paola Dybala, an Argentinian football superstar. Same tattoo. Here's a photo of that. Same place, crown on top of ball.

And we were trying on our staff, Paola, to figure out like what is the appropriate reference point. And I think we settled on, this is kind of like getting a flaming basketball. It's just a thing you get because you're hot. Yeah, again, like, why do people get tattoos because they have passions. And so at this point, I just need to jump in to emphasize something broader about not simply this particular sports-themed tattoo, but also tattoos in general, as this marker, according to the federal government, for membership

in Tren de Aragua. Which is that this entire concept is bullsh**. A leading criminology professor at the Central University of Venezuela recently told a New Yorker that this administration's tattoo strategy is, quote, the first time I've ever encountered any reference to the significance of tattoos as it regards Trenderagua, which is a gang, by the way, that this professor has spent his career studying. He then called the whole thing, quote, absurd and naive. Meanwhile, the author of the definitive book on Tren

de Ragua happens to be a journalist named Rona Rizquez, and she spent her career investigating criminal groups across Venezuela. What you should know, according to her, is quote, Venezuelan gangs are not identified by tattoos. And yet this is precisely, precisely how ICE, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, has been actively justifying the disappearance of people without criminal records, again, like Jersey Reyes Barrios. And in fact, on the Texas state government's website, to also broaden the scope out here, we found a literal PowerPoint presentation with a slide entitled, Trend de Aragua, dash,

tattoos and other identifiers, end quote. And right there, in the top right corner, which you can see right now on YouTube, is the Jumpman logo. Yes, the Jumpman logo for Air Jordan, with the number 23 beneath it. Which, as I trust you can now understand, feels both irresponsible and actually insane. If these soccer players and basketball players

and sort of famous celebrities were not in the public eye, and if they were just like random black and brown men walking down the streets, potentially from what we know of the legacy of ICE and previous presidential administrations, they would be racially profiled because of their tattoos. And very likely could end up like Dersim. And I've seen this, I've reported on this in the past, racially profiling people because of these mundane tattoos with no evidence whatsoever to showcase

that they are actually dangerous criminals. That part that all it takes is one tattoo that is cross-checked against on PowerPoint somewhere in which also on the list are roses, guns. God forbid, by the way, you're a train enthusiast. We got a locomotive smack dab in the middle here. It just makes me think of the strategic incompetence. If you're using this as sufficient evidence for declaring that someone like Argoli in this story is actually

part of a terrorist organization. It's lazy. It's cruel. It's racist. Just this quote, right? Like to go back to this legal document, quote, DHS reviewed JSA social media posts and found a photo of Mr. Reyes Barrios making a hand gesture that they allege is proof of gang membership. And for those who are not watching on YouTube and are missing the visuals on this, can you describe the gesture he's making? It's literally a rock and roll sign. A sign that has often been used in sign language to say, I love you. And on Instagram, by the way, this guy's making all sorts of, it's like peace signs, thumbs up, rock and roll gestures, all this stuff.

You see all the kids on his youth soccer team there. He's just a goofy guy. So I talked to his lawyer, actually, to Indersi's lawyer, who spent a lot of time sort of dissecting this tattoo image and dissecting this hand gesture. And the hand gesture, the hand gesture is this. One of her responses to the government was literally just like check your emojis right on your phone. Emojis on your phone but it didn't matter to DHS.

I have been wondering who is the person who is actually fighting for him against the U.S. government. I'm Lynette Tobin an immigration attorney and solo practitioner in San Diego. And she's not just protecting Jersey at this point, but she's literally taking on the government. I am one individual basically fighting against the government. This is what she told me about the very last time she talked to Jersey. I got a call and learned from him that he was being transferred. He wasn't sure where. He just said he was being transferred. And then the next day he called me and he was in Texas this time instead of San Diego. Couldn't tell me what prison he was at. He didn't know.

Simply Texas. His family was getting increasingly anxious. They had heard about these Venezuelans being sent to El Salvador. Of course they didn't know for sure that he was there, but they knew he had tattoos and they knew he was Venezuelan and they're used to hearing from him, if not daily, almost daily. from him, if not daily, almost daily, and asked me to please find out if he was still in the U.S. And I communicate with him through an app, and I checked that app, and it showed that he was still at the prison. So I told them, no, he's still here. He's okay.

But he wasn't. They simply never, DHS never removed him from the app. He's still on my app as someone who is present in the U.S. at this prison in Texas. Tonight, the Trump administration sharing this dramatic video from the president of El Salvador showing alleged Venezuelan gang members arriving to his country overnight, marching into prison. Hersey's aunt sees a picture on the news of these men who are on their knees with their heads down and their heads

being forcibly shaved. The administration deporting hundreds of Venezuelans from the U.S. that they accuse of being members of Tren de Aragua. Despite a federal judge yesterday ordering the administration to temporarily cease deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. They see someone who looks like Hersey.

They get very worried. So finally, I reach someone at ICE who confirms that he has been removed from the country. I give that news to the family and they, I mean, they sobbed. There has been a lot of crime. It's the footage that has been posted on the social media account of the president to El Salvador. the images that he wants people to see. We're talking about a maximum security prison designed to hold and essentially banish terrorists from civilization. It is the most maximum security prison in El Salvador. It can hold up to 40,000 prisoners. The prisoners are held in large cells of at least 80 people in one cell.

There are no windows. They never go outside. They aren't even taken out of the cell to eat. There are two open toilets that all of these men share. There is no privacy. They're constantly on camera, and the lights are never turned off. They have nothing. They are simply in this cell 23 and a half hours a day, and they do nothing. They just sit there.

We do know that people at this prison are tortured. They're beaten. They aren't given medical attention. It's a very frightening circumstance. And somewhere in this photo of these people being lined up in what is a de facto concentration camp, somewhere in there is the goalie we've been talking about. Now what do you call that? Now what do you call this image? What do you call this transfer of

Venezuelans from the United States to El Salvador. Do you call that deportation? Do you call that kidnapped? I'm not going to call it a deportation because he does not have an order of deportation. They took these people, did not tell them where they were being taken, put them on a plane forcibly, and sent them to a third country. These men have no connection with El Salvador. They have disappeared them The government has refused to say where they're being held even though we know where they're being held They have no contact with their attorneys no contact with their families. They can't receive letters. They can't receive their calls

Not even the International Red Cross has been able to see these people. They have been disappeared by our government. It's the place that we saw also because Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem went and took a photo op trip to pose in front of some of those bars and some of those men, and then posted it, of course, on social media. Here at CCOT today and visiting this facility, if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face. First of all, do not come to our country illegally.

You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people. She says if you come to our country illegally, number one, Dersi didn't come illegally. He used a legal process. Number two, and they're making this assumption without any evidence that everyone that is standing behind her is part of El Tren de Agua or MS-13. And so this is for sure a show of strength from the Trump administration, but But the biggest weakness is that in doing this, they have completely dismantled any democratic norm, any sign of due process that makes us who we're supposed to be, which is a democracy that's gone.

Right. The idea that if you suspect that this former professional soccer player, this father of two, this man, is in fact gang-affiliated, terrorist-associated, that you should go through the legal system and prove it, as opposed to disappearing him. That's what the fight is right now, broadly speaking. And in specific, that is the hell that this tattoo has brought Fierce to. Who would have known that this guy that grew up loving soccer, that became a soccer player, that wanted this Real Madrid tattoo, that left his country

inspired by what the United States is supposed to mean. Inspired by what Venezuela doesn't have. Which is law and order, due process, freedoms, rights, basic liberties. Protesting the dictator that is an enemy of the man in charge of our country who sent him to El Salvador to be under the watch of another dictator. Who would have known that that person would have ended up in El Salvador?

So I should say, Paula, that we here at Publatory Finds Out did get a quote from the Department of Homeland Security. They provided us with the following statement. Jairse Reyes Barrios was not only in the United States illegally, but he has tattoos that are consistent with those indicating TDA, Trende Aragua, gang membership. His own social media indicates he is a member of the vicious TDA, Trende Aragwa, gang membership, his own social media, indicates he is a member of the vicious TDA gang. That all said, D.H. intelligence assessments go beyond a single tattoo and we are confident in our findings."

And so naturally we had multiple detailed follow-up questions about those assessments, about whether they were even talking about assessments of Jher-Sey in particular. We had questions about why the government is so confident about any of that, about whether they were even talking about assessments of Jersey in particular, we had questions about why the government is so confident about any of that, about any specifics that they might be able to offer us. And eventually, Tricia McLaughlin, the Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, did get back to us in an email and she said this, quote, No, I am not referring to Barrios specifically. Our intelligence goes beyond social media and tattoos. Full stop. We aren't going to hand over our national security information and put law enforcement

in harm's way every time a terrorist and gang member says they aren't one. That would be insane. Unfortunately, there is there's no surprise here. No. And I think watching this country turn into the Venezuela, almost, that Jersey escaped, is alarming. And so at this point, it is just worth me reiterating, perhaps the defining aspect of the United States itself,

which is that in a constitutional democracy like ours, people like Jersey Reyes Barrios are in fact allowed to say that they are not a terrorist and not a gang member, and to in fact prove that in a court of law. Which is why, currently, a federal judge in Washington is threatening to hold the Trump administration in contempt for preventing so many of these men from Venezuela who got swept away by our government on those planes in the middle of the night from making their case as to why they should not be kicked out. And meanwhile, back in San Diego, today actually, exactly six months after that first appointment

that Jersay had, the one that got spat out by the government's free iPhone app so that he could legally and transparently make his original case to be let into this country, our country, Jersay's lawyer is finally expecting something. She's expecting to hear from Jersé's personal immigration judge with a decision on whether to dismiss his claim to asylum, his claim to legal status officially, or to keep Jersé's case open so that he can continue his request when and if he returns to the United States or even some other country. But no matter the official law of the land, no matter the due process here, the Trump administration is expected to push back. They're expected to brush aside that due process and the humanity involved in favor

of dictatorship. And so yes, it is certainly worth sounding some alarm. And it is also quite appropriate to be cynical about America today. But in Venezuela, something else is happening back on the pitch. And so as much as this is a story that isn't otherwise being told here in America, what's it like back home where Jerse is from? I mean, I think there's two stories, you know. There's a story of pain that his family is feeling. His sister and his parents are waiting anxiously every single day

to just know if their brother and their son is feeling. His sister and his parents are waiting anxiously every single day to just know if their brother and their son is alive. Jersey's daughters are waiting. Jersey's partner is living in limbo right now in the U.S. Mexico border in Tapachulas, in one of the most dangerous Mexican towns, also wondering if her partner is dead or alive. But then there's the flip side of the story, right, which is the essence of who this man is, knowing that is the impact that he had in that soccer field years ago. The impact that he had training those kids, talking to those kids about this sport that has given them dreams and opportunities outside of Venezuela.

If you walk through Jersey's hometown right now, you'll see a mural of him. If you go to his soccer team, to Perijanero FC, and the kids are talking about him. This kid, Alan Carvajal, he's a goalie in the youth team in the very same field again where Jersey grew up and his message is clear. You know having a tattoo is not a crime and I think the part of the story is also understanding that any one of those kids and any one of these kids that are now trying to be Dersi could end up like Dersi where

you know leaving the soccer team can end up taking you to a detention center, mega prison in El Salvador. It just occurs to me Paola that this is a lot for a bunch of 10-year-olds to deal with, right? The idea that your athletic idol, whether it is Iker Casillas or Jerse Reyes Barrios, would be gone, somewhere trapped in a nightmare of the United States and the dictator of El Salvador's creation. And so what are these team meetings like? What's practice like now for this team?

Practice now ends with a prayer. And practice ends with Dirsi's name in people's minds. He's remembered. Thank you for this day. And also for our families. We ask that you help us and also members of the family. Help Jersey, who was a great trainer for us. Guide him wherever he is.

Help to free him, liberate him so he's free wherever he is. Father, give him strength and courage and let him know that he is with us, the Venezuelans. Amen. It's hard not to think of that, Paola, as the goalie's prayer, right? Praying for someone now to save him. To save him, yeah. I mean, it's beautiful that he remains alive in that field with them somehow. Yeah.

Paola Ramos, thank you so much for helping us tell this story. Thank you for letting me do that. It really was a true honour. This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a MetalArk Media production. And I'll talk to you next time. you