'Deported because of his tattoos': has the US targeted Venezuelans for their body art?

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

‘Deported because of his tattoos’: has the US targeted Venezuelans for their body art?

US claims tattoos prove membership of Tren de Aragua gang but relatives describe tributes to God, family and Real Madrid

By Tom Phillips and Clavel Rangel
Thu 20 Mar 2025 23.42 GMT
First published on Thu 20 Mar 2025 22.54 GMT

Like many Venezuelans of his generation, Franco José Caraballo Tiapa is a man of many tattoos.

There is one of a rose, one of a lion, and another – on the left side of the 26-year-old’s neck – of a razor blade that represents his work as a barber.

Two other tattoos pay tribute to Caraballo’s eldest daughter, Shalome: a pocket watch featuring the time of her birth and some black lettering on his chest that spells out the four-year-old’s name.

“He’s just a normal kid … he likes tattoos – that’s it,” said Martin Rosenow, a Florida-based attorney who represents the Venezuelan asylum seeker – one of scores shipped to El Salvador by the Trump administration last weekend as part of his hard-line immigration crackdown.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/deported-because-of-his-tattoos-has-the-us-targeted-venezuelans-for-their-body-art