WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Venezuelan immigrant filed a $1.3 million lawsuit against the Trump administration on March 25, 2026, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit alleges unlawful detention, removal to a Salvadoran prison, and mistreatment during a March 2025 immigration enforcement operation.

Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel was detained in Texas on March 13, 2025, removed from the United States, and flown to CECOT prison with dozens of other immigrants. According to court filings, the lawsuit alleges that Leon Rengel experienced loss of liberty, physical injury, severe emotional stress, and lasting psychological trauma due to his detention, removal, and imprisonment in CECOT.

The lawsuit says that Leon Rengel entered the United States on June 12, 2023, at an El Paso, Texas port of entry. He entered after attending an appointment scheduled through the CBP One program and underwent screenings and provided biometrics upon entry, according to court filings. The lawsuit says that Leon Rengel was awaiting a 2028 immigration court hearing when he was arrested in Irving, Texas, on his way to work.

Court filings state that ICE officers told Leon Rengel that his tattoos indicated membership in the Tren de Aragua gang. The lawsuit says that Leon Rengel has never had any affiliation with the Tren de Aragua gang or any other gang. The lawsuit alleges that ICE officers ignored Leon Rengel's documentation confirming his ongoing immigration case and ignored that he had a pending application for Temporary Protected Status.

The lawsuit says that Leon Rengel was detained in CECOT for four months. During this time, he was beaten by guards, subjected to inhumane and overcrowded conditions, subjected to extreme psychological trauma, denied adequate medical care, and held without contact with his family or any legal counsel, according to court filings.

Upon landing in El Salvador, some detainees protested and refused to disembark the plane, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit says that Salvadoran officers, two at a time, struck detainees and carried them off the plane. The lawsuit says that Leon Rengel saw some detainees being thrown down stairways.

Leon Rengel was released from CECOT on July 18, 2025, and returned to Venezuela along with more than 250 other Venezuelan immigrants as part of a prisoner swap agreement between the U.S. and Venezuela, according to court filings. The lawsuit says that the administration designed and implemented unlawful enforcement mechanisms to accelerate the detention and removal of Venezuelan immigrants based on their national origin. The lawsuit says that the enforcement mechanisms were designed to systematically deny Venezuelan immigrants due process and judicial review and said in court filings that they were designed to broadcast a narrative of maximum punishment through the arrangement with El Salvador.