According to Gutierrez, federal agents detained Leon Rengel in the parking garage of their Irving, Texas, apartment, as he was leaving for a hair-cutting gig.

“They didn’t have an arrest warrant,” Gutierrez said. “They asked him to lift his shirt to show his tattoos, and when they saw them, they claimed he was affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang. They took his documents — and took him away.” That was the last time she saw him.

Leon Rengel was briefly held at East Hidalgo Detention Center, a private facility in La Villa, Texas, used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Then — nothing. His alien number, a way to track his whereabouts, vanished two days later from ICE’s online system. He disappeared.

ICE agents told Gutierrez her boyfriend had been deported to his home country. But the family has searched in Venezuela, and he isn’t there, she said.

“I’ve been to the ICE office. I’ve contacted the FBI. The DEA. Everyone told me the same thing: He was deported,” Gutierrez said. “But where to? He never arrived in Venezuela.”

It’s possible that the Trump administration deported Leon Rengel to a mega-prison in El Salvador, where hundreds of other Venezuelans were sent last month — but there is no official record to confirm it.

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Related, “An Immigrant Held in U.S. Custody ‘Simply Disappeared’” (arc)