This undated photo provided by Johanny Sanchez shows Sanchez, right, and her husband Franco Caraballo, who was sent over the weekend to El Salvador accused by the Trump administration of belonging to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. (Johanny Sanchez via AP)2025-03-18T18:10:17Z MIAMI (AP) Franco Caraballo called his wife Friday night, crying and panicked. Hours earlier, the 26-year-old barber and dozens of other Venezuelan migrants held at a federal detention facility in Texas were dressed in white clothes, handcuffed and taken onto a plane. He had no idea where he was going.Twenty-four hours later, Caraballos name disappeared from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements online detainee locator.On Monday, his wife, Johanny Snchez, learned Caraballo was among the more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants flown over the weekend to El Salvador, where they are now held in a maximum-security prison after being accused by the Trump administration of belonging to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.Snchez insists her husband isnt a gang member. She struggles even to find logic in the accusation. The weekend flightsFlights by U.S. immigration authorities set off a frantic scramble among terrified families after hundreds of immigrants vanished from ICEs online locator.Some turned up at that prison in El Salvador, a massive complex where visitors, recreation and education are not allowed. The U.S. has paid El Salvadors government $6 million to hold the prisoners, many of them Venezuelan. The Venezuelan government rarely accepts deportees from the U.S. But many families have no idea where to find their loved ones.I dont know anything about my son, said Xiomara Vizcaya, a 46-year-old Venezuelan. In this 2024 photo provided by Xiomara Vizcaya., Ali David Navas Vizcaya poses in front of his grandmothers house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. (Xiomara Vizcaya via AP) In this 2024 photo provided by Xiomara Vizcaya., Ali David Navas Vizcaya poses in front of his grandmothers house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. (Xiomara Vizcaya via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Ali David Navas Vizcaya had been in U.S. detention since early 2024, when he arrived from Mexico at a U.S. border crossing where he had an appointment to talk to immigration officers. He called her late Friday night and said he thought he was being deported to Venezuela or Mexico. His name is no longer in ICEs system.Nearly 8 million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2013, when its oil-dependent economy collapsed. Most initially went to other Latin American countries but more headed to the U.S. after COVID-19 restrictions lifted during the Biden administration. On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced he had invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the U.S. to deport noncitizens without any legal recourse, including rights to appear before an immigration or federal court judge. Many conservative have cheered the deportations and the Trump administration for taking a hard line to deal with immigration.The Trump administration says it is using the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Tren de Aragua members, saying the gang was invading the U.S., though it has not provided any evidence to back up gang-membership claims. U.S. officials acknowledged in a court filing Monday that many people sent to El Salvador do not have criminal records, though they insisted all are suspected gang members.The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat, said a sworn declaration included in the filing, adding that along with their suspected gang membership the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. This undated photo provided by Johanny Sanchez shows Sanchez, left, and her husband Franco Caraballo, who was sent over the weekend to El Salvador accused by the Trump administration of belonging to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. (Johanny Sanchez via AP) This undated photo provided by Johanny Sanchez shows Sanchez, left, and her husband Franco Caraballo, who was sent over the weekend to El Salvador accused by the Trump administration of belonging to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. (Johanny Sanchez via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More We followed the lawOn Feb. 3, Caraballo went to an ICE office in Dallas office for another mandatory check-in with the agents handling his asylum request. He had been coming regularly to the office for months.What gang member, his wife asked, would walk into a federal law enforcement office during a Trump administration crackdown that has left immigrants across the country terrified they would be deported?We followed the law like we were told to. We never missed any meetings with authorities, said Snchez, who remains in the U.S. trying to secure her husbands release. Snchez said her husband, who she married in 2024 in Texas, has had no run-ins with the law in the U.S. She also showed The Associated Press a Venezuelan government document showing he has a clean criminal record there.Snchez believes he was wrongly accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua because of a tattoo in the shape of a clock marking the birthday of his daughter from a previous relationship. He has lots of tattoos but thats not a reason to discriminate against him, she said.Snchez said she and her husband left Venezuela in 2023 with barely $200 and spent the next three months sleeping in plazas, eating out of trash cans and relying on the goodwill of fellow migrants as they journeyed north.She thought the sacrifice would be worth it. Her husband had been working as a barber since the age of 13 and in the United States he was hopeful he could find a new start, escaping the poverty wages and toxic politics of Nicolas Maduros ironfisted rule in Venezuela. Venezuela respondsThe Venezuelan government has blasted the transfers, calling them kidnappings and urging people to protest Tuesday in the capital, Caracas, to demand that detainees in El Salvador be sent to their homeland.Jorge Rodriguez, Maduros chief negotiator with the U.S., urged Venezuelans living in the U.S. to return to home.The American dream, he said, had turned into a Salvadoran nightmare.Snchez agrees. She wants to leave the U.S. once she finds her husband.We fled Venezuela for a better future. We never imagined things would be worse.___Associated Press journalists Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis contributed to this report. JOSHUA GOODMAN Goodman is a Miami-based investigative reporter who writes about the intersection of crime, corruption, drug trafficking and politics in Latin America. He previously spent two decades reporting from South America. twitter mailto GISELA SALOMON Salomon is a Miami-based reporter who covers Latin America and immigration affairs for The Associated Press.Salomon es una periodista que desde Miami cubre asuntos latinoamericanos y de inmigracion. twitter mailto