OMG!! I HAVE THE $1.3MILLION LAWSUIT FILED YESTERDAY AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION BY THE VENEZUELAN WHO WAS SENT TO CECOT AND IT’S EVERYTHING YOU IMAGINED AND WORSE
As you may have heard, yesterday Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, a Venezuelan man who had been living in the United States and who was then deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, filed a $1.3million lawsuit against the Trump administration for denial of due process, abuse of process, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
I now have the complaint (and so do you if you’re a Notes from the Front member), and it’s a doozy.
The complaint starts out by explaining that “On the morning of his birthday, March 13, 2025, while he was headed to work, Plaintiff was caught in the Administration’s scheme and would soon experience the full force of its unconstitutional and unlawful policies.”
His *birthday*!
That day started the chain of events in which “Plaintiff Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel was wrongly identified as a member of the gang Tren de Aragua (“TdA”), repeatedly denied due process, falsely imprisoned, intentionally deceived, and – ultimately – illegally sent to El Salvador in blatant violation of a court order. In El Salvador, a country far from Plaintiff’s country of origin of Venezuela, and far from his home in the United States, he spent four months in prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (“CECOT”), where Salvadoran officials subjected him to physical and psychological abuse, humiliation, and degradation. This all occurred while the United States retained constructive custody over Plaintiff.”
The complaint then goes on to describe, in some horrific detail (you have been warned) the conditions, beatings and other abuse to which the prisoners at CECOT, including Rengel, were subjected.
When you read the lawsuit complaint you will see this:
“Plaintiff has exhausted his administrative remedies as required by law.”
That is because, as some of you may recall, in order to sue the Federal government under tort (personal injury, i.e. injury to your person) you must first file an administrative claim with the responsible agency, under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Only after that claim is either denied, or unresponded to, can you then file your lawsuit in Federal court.
Rengel’s timeline starts on page 20, where it explains that he was in the country legally, was employed (his employer wrote him a glowing letter of recommendation), and had both family and close ties to the community.
“When confronted by the ICE officers, Plaintiff explained that he had entered the United States at a port of entry, had a pending immigration court hearing, and had applied for TPS. Plaintiff presented documentation substantiating these facts and his compliance with immigration procedures.”
Of course, none of it mattered. They threw him into a vehicle, then another vehicle, and detained him. Then they told him that he was being deported to Venezuela, when in reality he was hustled onto one of the planes from the ‘planes in the air’ case, and sent to CECOT in El Salvador.
Rengel’s case is a little different, although no less egregious, from Abrego Garcia’s case in that Abrego Garcia had a court order saying that the *one place* to which he could *not* be deported was El Salvador. But Rengel’s case is still compelling. Very compelling.
Notes from the Front members: Rengel’s lawsuit complaint is in your inbox now.
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https://annepmitchell.substack.com/p/omg-i-have-the-13million-lawsuit
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