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Venezuelan Man Sues U.S. for Illegally Sending Him to Notorious Prison in El Salvador

HeadlineApr 03, 2026

A Venezuelan man is suing the Trump administration after he says he was illegally detained and deported from the United States to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison last year. The Venezuelan immigrant, who is identified by the pseudonym “Johnny Hernandez,” is seeking $56 million in damages. Despite having no criminal record in the U.S. or Venezuela, he was arrested by federal immigration agents and then sent to El Salvador, where he says he was tortured. Brent Ward, a member of his legal team, said in a statement, “The Trump administration knowingly and unlawfully locked up an innocent person for four months in a concentration camp-like prison where he suffered torture, shooting, beatings, and solitary confinement. … Our client suffered catastrophic injuries in CECOT from which he will never fully recover.”

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