Texas judge dismisses case against migrant deported to El Salvador for being an alleged gang member

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

A Texas judge this week dismissed a misdemeanor trespassing case against a man who was arrested by state troopers upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and accused of being a Venezuelan gang member — a designation that led federal authorities to send him to a notorious prison in El Salvador, court records show.

Despite the dismissal, it appears Pedro Luis Salazar-Cuervo, a 28-year-old from Venezuela with no known criminal record, remains in the maximum security prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

The Department of Public Safety arrested Salazar-Cuervo on New Year’s Eve when he crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into Maverick County. State police accused him of being a member of the Tren de Aragua gang — which President Donald Trump has designated a terrorist organization — because they found a photo of him on a phone posing with another man with tattoos who was also accused of being a gang member, his lawyers wrote in earlier court filings.

Salazar-Cuervo does not have any tattoos, according to court documents as well as his jail booking documents.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson insisted in a statement Thursday that Salazar-Cuervo is a gang member, but declined to share evidence.

Within three months of his arrest, Salazar-Cuervo was sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center along with more than 230 others who Trump called “the worst of the worst” — even as the administration knew most of the individuals had no U.S. convictions.

Last month District Judge Maribel Flores ordered Maverick County prosecutors to ask the federal government to return Salazar-Cuervo to Texas to face trial in August. DPS has arrested thousands of people on criminal trespassing charges since Gov. Greg Abbott launched a massive border crackdown in 2021 that surged troopers and National Guard soldiers to communities along the 1,250 miles of border Texas shares with Mexico.

But on Tuesday, a Maverick County judge dismissed the case following a motion to do so from a county prosecutor “in the interest of justice,” according to the order and motion. The prosecutor, Luis Gurrola-Villarreal, did not elaborate further in the motion and did not return a request for comment Thursday.

Rick Treviño, an attorney with the Lone Star Defenders Office who is representing Salazar-Cuervo in the case, said the state's move to dismiss the charge "highlights the frivolousness of their claim that he is a member of a gang."

“Pedro’s deportation to an El Salvador prison without due process, a fundamental aspect of our justice system, shocks the conscience," Treviño said. "The truth is Pedro isn’t a gang member. He is a father, a brother, a son — with no criminal history. We hope that he is brought back to the United States soon."

A DPS spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

ICE arrested Salazar-Cuervo seven days after he entered the country, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Thursday. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal in early March.

"We are confident in our law enforcement’s intelligence, and we aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane," McLaughlin said. "DHS intelligence assessments go well beyond just gang affiliate tattoos and social media."

Salazar-Cuervo’s case was among the latest examples of Texas police accusing someone of being a member of Tren de Aragua based on thin or questionable evidence. In Hays County, DPS led a raid of what authorities claimed to be a party of suspected gang members or affiliates — and arrested nearly 50 people, including children, who the federal government is moving to deport. The authorities involved in the raid have not presented evidence to back up their claim.

The Trump administration has leveled the accusation based on “gang identifiers” like Chicago Bulls jerseys and tattoos of clocks, stars and crowns — even as Latin American criminologists have widely and repeatedly debunked the connection between tattoos and Tren de Aragua membership.

Salazar-Cuervo grew up in a tiny Venezuelan town where Tren de Aragua does not operate, his sister said in court documents.

---

The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 13–15. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today!

TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.