A crown over a soccer ball. An eyeball that “looked cool.” Flowers.
Those are some of the everyday tattoos that defense lawyers say helped lead to the sudden weekend deportation of roughly 200 Venezuelan men who are accused of being members of the ruthless gang Tren de Aragua.
President Donald Trump ordered the men removed from the U.S. and sent to a notorious El Salvadoran prison under an 18th century wartime law that allows noncitizens to be deported without due process.
The proclamation issued by Trump argued that the wartime law applied because the gang that originated in Venezuela is “perpetrating an invasion” of the United States.
Most lawyers have dismissed that argument and noted that the government has not produced evidence to prove the men are gang members. The men were flown out of the U.S. before they could meet with their attorneys.
Tattoos are signals of membership in some Latin American gangs, with the facial tattoos of the El Salvadoran group MS-13 perhaps the best known. Experts, though, say tattoos are not central to Tren de Aragua. They also note that tattoos, hugely popular all over the world, are often nothing more than body art.
As for a crown tattoo, some law enforcement officials say it can represent membership in Tren de Aragua or the U.S. gang the Latin Kings. But just a glance online will turn up websites offering hundreds of crown varieties, with one noting they “add a touch of elegance to any look.” The situation is similar for stars and clocks, common tattoos that are regularly flagged as gang symbols by law enforcement.
Often they mean nothing at all, said Karla Ostolaza, managing director at the New York City public defender nonprofit The Bronx Defenders. Ostolaza has defended numerous Latin American immigrants targeted for anything from tattoos to Michael Jordan T-shirts.
The tattoos set off no alarm bells in a suburban U.S. gym, but “worn by someone of that nationality it becomes a sign of criminality, danger and gang affiliation,” she said.
U.S. officials have said agents did not rely on “tattoos alone” to identify gang members before the weekend flights. But lawyers and family members say tattoos were repeatedly used to argue that the men belonged to Tren de Aragua.
Take the story of a Venezuelan man identified in court documents only as J.G.G., who said he was told his tattoos showed his membership.
"He told officials he’d found them in a Google search, and thought an eyeball design `looked cool,'” said a filing by his lawyers.
Or there's Jerce Reyes Barrios, 36, whose defense lawyer said in a sworn declaration that authorities identified him as being in Tren de Aragua member in part because of a tattoo of a crown over a soccer ball and the word “Dios,” or God.
Reyes Barrios had been a professional soccer player and he chose that tattoo because the crown looked like the logo of his favorite team, the Spanish soccer club Real Madrid, his lawyer, Linette Tobin said in the filing.
A photo of the tattoo included in the filing shows it looks like the Real Madrid logo.
FILE - A doctor, using a laser, removes tattoos from an ex-gang member deported from Los Angeles at a clinic in San Salvador, Wednesday, June 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Luis Romero, File)
WELCH, W.Va. (AP) — Veronica Taylor doesn't know how to turn on a computer, let alone use the internet.
The 73-year-old can't drive and is mostly housebound in her mountainous and remote West Virginia community, where a simple trip to the grocery store can take an hour by car.
New requirements that Social Security recipients access key benefits online or in person at a field office, rather than on the phone, would be nearly impossible to meet without help.
“If that’s the only way I had to do it, how would I do it?” Taylor said, talking about the changes while eating a plate of green beans, mac and cheese and fried fish with a group of retirees at the McDowell County Senior Center. “I would never get nothing done.”
The requirements, set to go into effect March 31, are intended to streamline processes and combat widespread fraud within the system, according to President Donald Trump and officials in his administration.
They say that's why it's vital for people to verify their identity online or in person when signing up for benefits, or making a change like where the money is deposited.
But advocates say the changes will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable Americans. It will be harder to visit field offices in rural areas with high poverty rates. Often these are the same areas that lack widespread internet service.
Many Social Security field offices are also being shut down, part of the federal government's cost-cutting efforts. That could mean seniors have to travel even farther to visit, including in parts of rural West Virginia.
Donald Reed, who runs a local nonprofit that operates two senior centers, said he has serious concerns about the policy change, and how it’ll affect the people his group serves.
“I’m not anti-Trump — let me say that,” he said. “I think the general public greatly supports looking for waste in government. I do not think the general public understands the consequences of the current actions of the government.”
One in three people live in poverty in McDowell County, once one of the nation’s largest coal producers. Around 30% of the population receives Social Security benefits and 20% lack broadband access. People already face huge challenges in accessing basic needs like food and clothing.
Non-profit groups like The Commission on Aging receive money from the federal government to provide rides to the grocery store, medical appointments and free lunch at the county senior center, and could in theory add a stop to the local Social Security office said Reed, who is the group’s director.
But the transportation grant money is already not enough to meet the need. Last year, Reed ran out of money during the last three months of the fiscal year and had to dip into the Commission’s savings. This year, he said he won’t be able to do so.
Then, last Friday, he found out the Commission had lost an almost $1 million grant he expected, again because of the federal government’s cost cutting.
He had planned to use the money to rebuild one of the two county senior centers, an aging 1980s-era doublewide trailer with limited seating.
“Once the money’s gone, you know, the money’s gone,” he said.
Seniors at the center gather each weekday for lunch. Usually, they might play bingo or cards. On this day, because of the presence of a reporter from The Associated Press, the conversation turned to politics.
Many are Trump supporters. Every county in West Virginia supported Trump in three presidential elections.
Yet all agreed that the recent flurry of executive orders had been difficult to follow, especially since the county’s last local newspaper shuttered, and they weren’t sure what effect they’d have on their lives.
“I don’t understand a lot of the stuff that’s going on right now, and I just can’t pinpoint things together, you know,” said Brenda Hughes, 72, who said she usually goes to the Social Security office in person anyway because she said she’s found it difficult to get a hold of the call center. “But maybe it’s meant to be like that.”
Mary Weaver, 72, said she doesn’t approve of Trump giving Elon Musk so much leeway to cut and change services, and she doesn’t see those measures helping McDowell County.
“He gone run for president, and he’s going to get the presidency, but he’s going to let someone else tell him how to run the country?” she asked, criticizing Trump’s relationship with Musk.
Other residents aren't concerned. Barbara Lester, 64, said she wishes she could sit down with Trump and Musk and tell them they’re doing a fantastic job.
“And with all the money they’re saving from the fraud, they could afford to give their senior citizens an increase,” said Lester, who is retired from construction work.
But for Taylor, who depends on rides from the aging commission for most of her outings, the changes to Social Security may be just one more thing that will be difficult.
There are already many places she wants to go and can’t get to. None of her grandkids live nearby, her daughter lives in Roanoke, Virginia, and her 39-year-old son, who used to live in the Welch area near her, died. The walk from her house to the Social Security office is six miles.
“If I ask people more than two times to take me somewhere, it’s like begging. And I don’t beg nobody to do nothing for me,” she said. “I’m independent like that. I don’t beg nobody for nothing."
Mary Weaver, right, and Veronia Taylor get into a van as they leave the McDowell County Commission on Aging Senior Center in Welch, W.Va., Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
Veronica Taylor talks about how changes to the Social Security Administration's identity verification process will impact people in rural areas while eating lunch at the McDowell County Commission on Aging Senior Center in Welch, W.Va., Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
Mary Weaver reflects on changes to the Social Security Administration while visiting the McDowell County Commission on Aging Senior Center in Welch, W.Va., Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
A sign outside the U.S. Social Security Administration advertises its online services in downtown Welch, W.Va., Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
