SALT LAKE CITY — Last month, with the help of my executive producer, photographer and an editor fluent in Spanish, I told you about a man named Juan Jose Ramos, who was an immigrant from Venezuela living with family in Utah.
Ramos entered the country legally under the protection of an app called CBP1 and was awaiting hearings on his application for amnesty.
He was arrested in a traffic stop on January 25, shortly after President Donald Trump was inaugurated. His family only learned he had been flown to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison when they saw him in a video released online.
Ramos had no criminal record.
Today at his monthly news conference, Governor Spencer Cox did not mention Ramos, but he did talk about the President's deportation policies.
"The problem with this is there's just no nuance in the discussions. It's like, either you, you know, you hate the Constitution, or you want terrorists living in America," said Governor Cox. "It seems like it's one. Those are the two choices. And I think there's another choice out there, and that is that you follow the court order."
Cox is referring to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was also sent to El Salvador. The Governor highlighted a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court that mandated the government facilitate Garcia's return.
"The question wasn't about immigration status, but about what steps need to happen before someone is condemned and shipped to a foreign prison," Cox explained.
He continued, "People talk about, well, why would an illegal alien have the same constitutional rights as an American citizen? And they don't. They just don't. But due process. There are different levels to due process, and I think that a 9-0 court order was not surprising to anybody, at least with a legal background, because that's how you determine if someone is a US citizen or not, and that really matters."
Additionally, a report from The New York Times revealed a point system ICE agents used to classify individuals as part of the Tren de Aragua gang. According to this system, 8 points indicates gang membership; for instance, tattoos are worth four points, as are clothing with logos like the Michael Jordan Jumpman.
The Times report lends credence to what Ramos' relatives said happened in his arrest. He had been with his cousin who said law enforcement referred to the rose tattoo on his hands. In a picture they provided he also wore a baseball cap with the Jordan "Jumpman" logo.
Juan Jose Ramos remains in the CECOT prison, where the Salvadoran government openly brags about it being a place without visitor access, recreation, education, or even opportunities to go outside.
The organization, Human Rights Watch, recently released a report on the facility which said in part:
The Salvadoran government has described people held in CECOT as “terrorists,” and has said that they “will never leave.” Human Rights Watch is not aware of any detainees who have been released from that prison.
A federal appeals panel siding with the Federal District Court judge in Abrego Garcia's case wrote on Thursday, April 17:
“The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee, penned the decision for the panel.
In a recent oval office appearance, the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, sat next to Trump and said he would not return any of the prisoners.
"The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States," Bukele said.
President Trump said in the same meeting he would like to send American citizens convicted of crimes to the same prison, urging Bukele to build more for the purpose.
"Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough," Trump said.
