Urgent: Migrants Detained in Texas Express Fears of Notorious Salvadoran Prison Conditions
Rewritten Article
In the small Texas city of Anson, the Bluebonnet immigrant detention center's 31 detainees have sent a distress call this week: S-O-S. On Monday, they formed this message in the dusty yard of the facility, using a Reuters drone as their silent witness.
The commotion started ten days ago, when dozens of Venezuelan detainees at the center were labeled as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and faced potential deportation under a wartime law, revealed by documents, recorded video calls, and court proceedings. The families of seven detainees argued that these men are not gang members and refused to sign the accusatory document.
Nevertheless, they were loaded onto a bus and headed towards Abilene Regional Airport on the evening of April 18 (Friday), as confirmed by the American Civil Liberties Union and their relatives. But their bus was turned around and sent back to the detention center. That night, the Supreme Court issued a temporary stay on their deportations. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the halted deportations.
The group of Venezuelans at Bluebonnet still faces a potentially distressing fate: potential transfer to El Salvador's maximum-security prison CECOT, if the Supreme Court lifts the block. The privately-run Bluebonnet facility, 200 miles (322 km) west of Dallas, is managed by the Management and Training Corporation under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Over the years, this facility has maintained an average of 846 detainees a day, as per ICE detention data from fiscal year 2025. A recent flyover by a Reuters small plane and a drone nearby allowed the capture of aerial images of the detainees within the facility. Some of the detainees were seen wearing red jumpsuits, designating them as high-risk.
Among the identified detainees was Diover Millan, 24, and Jeferson Escalona, 19, who were seen walking and playing soccer in the detention center's yard, respectively. Millan was moved to Bluebonnet in mid-April from Stewart detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia, where he had been held since his arrest by immigration agents in the Atlanta suburbs on March 12. No criminal record for Millan, who was working in construction, was discovered by Reuters.
According to a senior Department of Homeland Security official, Millan was a "documented" member of Tren de Aragua, but provided no evidence. Escalona was detained by ICE in January 2025 after his arrest by local Texas police for evading arrest in a vehicle. Escalona arrived at Bluebonnet after he was returned from the U.S. migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in February. The official labeled Escalona a "self-admitted" Tren de Aragua member but did not provide evidence of the claim.
Escalona himself, while speaking over a phone call from Bluebonnet, claimed he had no ties to Tren de Aragua or any gang. He claimed he was a police officer in Venezuela. He said that U.S. authorities took his phone and maybe saw photos of him making hand gestures that were common in Venezuela. "They're making false accusations about me," he said. "I don't belong to any gang."
Escalona has expressed a desire to return voluntarily to Venezuela, yet he was denied. "I fear for my life here," he said. "I want to go to Venezuela."
Since the economic collapse and authoritarian crackdown under President Nicolas Maduro, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have sought refuge in the United States. Under former President Joe Biden's administration, many were granted temporary humanitarian protections that the Trump administration is trying to revoke.
Since their aborted deportation, the men at Bluebonnet have been uneasy, according to their families. Millan and some of the other Venezuelian detainees take turns sleeping to alert their families if immigration officers come to deport them. "He is desperate," Millan's wife said. "He told me that when he walked out onto the field, he sat down and looked at the sky and asked God to get him out of there soon."
Meanwhile, there have been reports of restricted food supplies and limited opportunities for detainees to communicate with their relatives. The Management and Training Corporation, the facility's operator, insists all detainees receive proper nutritional meals, while the Department of Homesecurity claims it adheres to federal standards for detainee treatment.
On April 26, an immigration official visited Escalona's dorm and answered questions from the detainees, as recorded by Reuters. The men questioned the government's efforts to send them to El Salvador, as well as the status of their immigration court dates. The official explained that the U.S. had tried to remove these men under the Alien Enemies Act, which was a separate process from their scheduled court hearings. "Due process" has been a significant point of contention in these cases, but advocacy groups continue to fight for individual hearings and the prevention of potential transfers to CECOT.
- The potentially distressing situation of the detainees at Bluebonnet, a general-news crime-and-justice facility in Anson, Texas, was highlighted this week when they formed an SOS message in the dusty yard.
- The detention centers' detainees, despite being labeled as Tren de Aragua gang members and facing potential deportation under wartime law, have had their bus journey aborted and deportations sent back by the Supreme Court.
- Politics is potentially involved in the detainees' fates, as they face potential transfer to El Salvador's maximum-security prison CECOT, if the Supreme Court lifts the block on their deportations.
- The aborted deportation has left the detainees, including Diover Millan and Jeferson Escalona, uneasy and fearful, with Millan sleeping shifts to be alerted for possible deportation and Escalona expressing a desire to return voluntarily to Venezuela, but being denied.
