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Families Say Two Venezuelans “Simply Disappeared” Amid U.S. Deportations to El Salvador

HeadlineApr 23, 2025

The families of several Venezuelan immigrants are demanding answers about their relatives’ whereabouts after they were arrested and expelled from the United States to unknown locations. One of the immigrants has been identified as 32-year-old Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a delivery driver who was apprehended in late January in Michigan after making a wrong turn and then transferred to an ICE jail in Texas. Vásquez believed he’d be repatriated to Venezuela, but his family and friends have not seen or heard from him since mid-March, when the Trump administration flew three planes carrying over 200 Venezuelans from the Texas detention center where Vásquez was being held to El Salvador. Vásquez is not on the list of the 238 people confirmed to have been sent to El Salvador’s mega-prison, and he does not appear in any images released by Salvadoran authorities. U.S. authorities confirmed he’d been removed from the United States, but a friend told The New York Times, “He has simply disappeared.”

Meanwhile, the family of 27-year-old Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel, who is also from Venezuela, says he was similarly disappeared into the U.S. immigration system. He was taken by ICE last month, and his family says they haven’t heard from him since.

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