19-year-old Venezuelan migrant Alessandro Paredes spoke to ABC News from a detention center in Texas after his deportation was blocked by the Supreme Court.
abcnews.go.com
“Paredes claimed to ABC News he and others were "forced to sign a paper" saying they are part of a gang. On Friday, the ACLU submitted a document they say their clients at Bluebonnet received from immigration officials. The document, titled "Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal under the Alien Enemies Act," says, "You have been determined to be... a member of Tren de Aragua.
"We have been forced to sign a paper, right here, basically saying that we are part of a gang, that we are part of it, and they're forcing us to sign it," Paredes said.”
As someone whose mother’s entire side of the family survived Nazi POW camps, this is chilling. I grew up hearing stories about what happens when governments start demanding false confessions and how prisoners were beaten, starved, or manipulated into signing statements used to justify their own punishment. It’s a tactic with a long, dark history. Coerced confessions are used by authoritarian regimes to turn victims into “criminals” on paper - just enough to make the public look away.
This isn’t just about migrants. It’s about what kind of government we’re allowing to take shape. If ICE can get away with this in the shadows, how long until these tactics surface elsewhere? MOO