Latest news with #Salvadoran
NBC News
14 hours ago
- Health
- NBC News
Venezuelan who had rare, major surgery was deported to El Salvador prison, and his family has no idea how he is
Even before her son was summarily locked up in a Salvadoran prison and cut off from contact with the outside world, Mariela Villamizar was worried about his health. Wladimir Vera Villamizar, a 33-year-old welder from western Venezuela, had recovered from a tuberculosis infection that left severe scarring in his right lung, according to his family and medical records reviewed by NBC News. His health was in decline when he arrived in the United States as an asylum-seeker last year and got progressively worse during the months he spent in immigration detention, his mother said. In January, his family said, after Vera had been released with an ankle monitor, he was rushed to the E.R. According to medical records, he underwent an emergency right pneumonectomy — the total removal of his right lung. 'The operation took over five hours,' his mother told NBC News from her home in Venezuela. 'God worked a miracle, and he came out OK, but the recovery was not what he expected.' About two weeks after the surgery and days after President Donald Trump took office, Vera was detained once again, according to his family. After President Trump invoked emergency wartime powers in March to deport more than 200 Venezuelan men to the supermax prison in El Salvador known as the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, or CECOT, Vera's name turned up on a list of deportees leaked to CBS News. 'Since the last time I spoke to him on March 13, I've gotten no information about him,' Villamizar's mother said. 'I don't know how he's doing, what condition his health is in, how they're holding him. Whether he's received any medical attention — or if they even have that over there in El Salvador. I just don't know.' Because every prisoner at CECOT is held strictly incommunicado, with zero access to lawyers or loved ones, nothing is known about whether Vera is receiving any treatment. The men were deported to CECOT under a presidential order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law meant to be used in wartime that allows for the suspension of certain due process rights for noncitizens from hostile nations. The legality of the move is the subject of multiple strands of high-stakes litigation in the federal courts. In a statement to NBC News, Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security's Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, said that Vera 'self-admitted to spending 7 years in prison on murder charges in Venezuela' and is a 'member of Tren de Aragua, one of the most violent ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth.' Mariela Villamizar, Vera's mother, acknowledged that Vera had served a 7-year prison sentence in Venezuela for homicide, but said this sentence was served over a false accusation and denied that her son was ever a member of Tren de Aragua. Constitutional rights attorneys in the U.S. say the past criminal histories of the men sent to CECOT are irrelevant to their due process rights. 'The fact that he had a prior criminal conviction can in no way deprive him of his procedural rights, including the right not to be sent to his potential death in a third country,' said Baher Azmy, Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights. 'But for this administration, the fact of a prior criminal conviction is enough to sweep away any legal protections for any person in this country.' On the question of Vera's medical condition, McLaughlin said: 'This criminal illegal alien was in good health at the time of his deportation to El Salvador,' and referred questions about his current medical care at CECOT to the U.S. State Department. The State Department referred the inquiry back to the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security would not comment on Vera's case or confirm whether he is, in fact, at CECOT. Vera's is one of hundreds of Venezuelan families who have been clamoring for more than 100 days for proof of life from their loved ones inside CECOT. In Vera's case, the need is concrete and urgent: The removal of a lung is a rare, major operation typically requiring months of intensively managed recovery, including medication and rehabilitation exercises. According to doctors interviewed by NBC News — including a thoracic surgeon, a pulmonologist and a primary care physician — detaining a patient so soon after a pneumonectomy raises serious alarms from a medical perspective. 'It's the kind of procedure you do maybe once a year,' said Dr. Kiran Lagisetty, a general thoracic surgeon at the University of Michigan who specializes in diseases of the lung. 'You know the name of the patient and you worry about them, because whenever you get a phone call about that, it's probably not something good.' In the weeks after Vera was detained but before he was sent to El Salvador, according to his family, his cough — which had initially gone away after the procedure — came back. Among other things, pneumonectomy patients are told to avoid scenarios that could lead to respiratory infections — such as the crowded indoor space of a detention center or a prison. Infection poses a serious risk not only to the remaining lung but also to the cavity left by the lung removed in the procedure. Physicians look closely for any sign of complications, especially in the first 90 days of recovery. 'When a patient starts coughing, we treat it very seriously,' Lagisetty said. Vera's is one of several cases of men sent to CECOT with existing medical conditions. Together and Free, a nonprofit organization coordinating legal and case management services for the CECOT families, has documented, among others, eight cases of asthma, two of diabetes and one of muscular dystrophy. Even routine cases of diabetes or hypertension can present serious problems if they are not properly treated, said Dr. Nora V. Becker, a primary care physician and assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan. 'These types of chronic conditions require regular access to medications and high-quality medical care, or patients can face either immediate life-threatening complications or long-term complications that diminish their quality of life,' Becker said. Michelle Brané, Together and Free's executive director, said the families of the men deported to CECOT 'are terrified that they are at serious risk, not only from the general conditions at CECOT but from lack of appropriate medical treatment. Their lives are at risk because the United States put them there.'
Los Angeles Times
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
In new indie flick ‘Ponyboi,' River Gallo sheds light on an intersex experience
'How the f— does this baby know if she loves her father?' asked River Gallo one day at Walmart, maybe 10 years ago, when they saw an infant sucking on a pacifier emblazoned with the words 'I love my daddy.' 'That started the ball rolling about my own issues with my father and with this compulsory love that we have with our families, specifically with our parents, specifically in this instance with my father, her father, our fathers, and with masculinity in general,' says a radiant Gallo during a recent video interview. The spontaneous moment of introspection planted the seed for what became a 10-minute performance piece while studying acting at NYU — then their USC thesis-turned-short film 'Ponyboi,' released in 2017, which Gallo wrote, starred in, and co-directed with Sadé Clacken Joseph. That project ultimately evolved into 'Ponyboi' the feature, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024, became the first film produced under Fox Entertainment Studios' indie label, Tideline, and was released June 27 in theaters across the United States. A consummate multihyphenate, Gallo again wrote the screenplay, served as producer and stars as the titular character: an intersex, Latine sex worker in New Jersey who is desperate to escape their pimp (played by Dylan O'Brien) and the world of crime and violence that surrounds them. Flashbacks to Ponyboi's childhood, made difficult due to the medical procedures forced on them and the temperament of their classically macho Latino father, fill in the viewer on the protagonist's past. Meanwhile, dreamy sequences with a handsome, cowboy hat-wearing stranger named Bruce (Murray Bartlett), an idealized embodiment of a positive masculinity, construct a rich world both visually and thematically in Ponyboi's present. '[At] face value, 'Ponyboi' can seem like, 'Oh, it's just a person-on-the-run kind of movie,' but upon a closer look, it's about someone finding freedom in the acceptance of their past and the possibility that, through transcending their own beliefs about themselves, perhaps their future could be a little brighter,' Gallo explains. Gallo is the child of Salvadoran immigrants who escaped their country's civil war in 1980 and lived undocumented in the U.S. Gallo grew up in New Jersey and showed interest in acting from an early age. It was a strict teacher's unexpected encouragement, after Gallo appeared in a musical during their sophomore year of high school, that convinced them to pursue a life in art. 'My biology teacher, Mrs. Lagatol, came to see my musical, and the next day I was waiting for her to say something to me, and she didn't say anything,' Gallo recalls. 'Then she gave me back a test, and on the test was a little Post-it that said: 'If you had been the only one on stage, it would've been worth the price of admission. Bravo.'' Gallo still keeps that Post-it note framed. Though their parents were supportive, Gallo admits feeling frustration in recent years that their family has not fully understood the magnitude of what they've accomplished as a marginalized person in entertainment: an intersex individual and a first-generation Latine. 'Not to toot my own horn, but for a graduate of any film program, getting your first feature to Sundance is the biggest deal in the world,' says Gallo. 'There hasn't been a person like me to do what I'm doing. There's no precedent or pioneer in my specific identities.' This desire for a more informed validation is even stronger in relation to their father. 'I don't think my dad has seen any of my films. My mom has; she was at the premiere at Sundance, which was really beautiful, and so was my sister,' Gallo says. 'But I wouldn't be surprised if my dad never sees my movies. That's hard, but he's supportive in other ways.' Halfway through our conversation, Gallo realizes they are wearing a Bruce Springsteen T-shirt. That's no coincidence, since 'The Boss,' a fellow New Jerseyan, influenced multiple aspects of 'Ponyboi.' As they wrote the screenplay for the short version, Gallo was also reading Springsteen's autobiography, 'Born to Run,' and that seeped into their work. 'I remember taking a trip to the Jersey Shore that summer and then looking up at the Stone Pony, the venue where [Springsteen] had his first big performance, and just being like, 'Stone pony, stone pony, pony, pony, pony boy, ponyboi. That's a good name.' And then that was just what I decided to name the character' For Gallo, the emblematic American singer-songwriter represents 'the idea of being working class,' which Gallo thinks 'transcends political ideology.' As a child of immigrants, Springsteen's work speaks to Gallo profoundly. 'My dad, who is more dark-skinned than me, was an electrician, and he was a union guy who experienced all this racism in New York unions,' Gallo says. 'There's so much of what I see in Bruce Springsteen in my father and also just in how Bruce Springsteen describes his relationship with his dad, who was also a man who couldn't express his emotions.' For the feature, Gallo enlisted Esteban Arango, a Colombian-born, L.A.-based filmmaker whose debut feature, 'Blast Beat,' premiered at Sundance in 2020. But while Gallo believes Arango understood the nuances of the narrative, it admittedly pained them to relinquish the director's chair. But it was a necessary sacrifice in order to focus on the performance and move the project along. 'It was difficult because I went to school for directing,' Gallo explains. 'But I just don't think the movie would've happened on this timeline if I had wanted to direct it. It would've taken much longer, and we needed the film at this moment in time.' Arango brought his own 'abrasive' edge to the narrative. 'I felt the story needed more darkness,' the director explains via Zoom from his home in Los Angeles. 'The hypermasculine world of New Jersey is constantly trying to oppress and reject Ponyboi, because they have a much softer, feminine energy they want to project.' The contrast between the tenderness of Ponyboi's interiority and the harshness of their reality is what Arango focused on. Though Arango hesitated to take on the film, given that he is not queer, his personal history as an immigrant functioned as an entry point into this tale of shifting, complex identities. Still, throughout the entire process, Arango was clear that, first and foremost, 'Ponyboi' was a story centering intersex people — and all those who don't fit into the rigid gender binary. 'Their plight should be our plight, because they are at the forefront of what it means to be free,' he says. 'When somebody attacks them or doesn't understand why they present themselves as they are, it's really an attack on all of us, and it's a reflection of our misunderstanding of ourselves.' Back in 2023, Gallo was one of three subjects in Julie Cohen's incisive documentary 'Every Body,' about the intersex experience, including the ways the medical industry performs unnecessary procedures in order to 'normalize' intersex people. Gallo confesses that for a long time they thought being intersex was something they would never feel comfortable talking about — something they even would take 'to the grave,' as they put it. 'There's no other way that I can explain the fact that now I've made so much work reflecting on my identity other than it being an act of God,' Gallo says. 'Because I just had the feeling that the world needed it now, and also that I needed it now. I'm glad that 'Ponyboi' taught me about the agency that I have over my art and myself and my life.' Anti-trans legislation, Gallo explains, includes loopholes enabling doctors to 'normalize' intersex bodies and continue the medically unnecessary, and at times nonconsensual surgeries on intersex youth. 'The intersex narrative in [trans legislation] is invisible and not spoken about enough,' they say. 'These are also anti-intersex bills.' To fully understand Gallo as a person and an artist, one should watch both 'Every Body' and 'Ponyboi.' The doc shows the bones of what made Gallo who they are without symbols, just the raw facts of how their intersex identity shaped them. 'Ponyboi,' on the other hand, exposes their interior life with the poetry that the cinematic medium allows for. However, what happens with 'Ponyboi' now isn't as important to Gallo as the fact that the movie exists as a testament of their totality as a creative force. 'Love my movie, hate my movie, I don't care, because my movie healed something deep inside of me that I was waiting a lifetime to be healed from,' Gallo states fervently. 'Intersex people are still invisible in this culture, but I can at least say that I don't feel invisible to myself anymore. And it was all worth it for that.'
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Abrego Garcia asks to delay release from jail amid Trump threats of deportation
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked that he remain in a Tennessee jail for several more weeks after the Trump administration said it plans to swiftly deport him to a third country if he is released. The Friday filing from Abrego Garcia's team in his Tennessee criminal case comes after prosecutors told a Maryland judge Thursday they would plan to deport the man to a country other than El Salvador if he was released from custody. 'Because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by the DOJ, we respectfully request to delay the issuance of the release order,' the attorneys wrote, saying the Justice Department must 'provide reliable information concerning its intentions.' Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to a megaprison in El Salvador despite a 2019 order from an immigration court judge barring his removal to his home country. Abrego Garcia spent months in the Salvadoran prison system despite multiple court orders directing the Trump administration to facilitate his return. He was brought back to the U.S. earlier this month as the Justice Department announced it would bring human trafficking charges against Abrego Garcia stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. A Tennessee judge ordered Abrego Garcia be released during the trial, finding he was not a flight risk or a public safety threat. In Thursday's court hearing in Maryland, prosecutors said they planned to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country other than El Salvador, though they said such plans were 'not imminent.' However, Abrego Garcia's lawyers noted in comments to The Associated Press that the Justice Department said Abrego Garcia would first face trial before being deported. 'The irony of this request is not lost on anyone. After illegally removing Mr. Abrego to El Salvador, the government retrieved him, brought him to this District, and indicted him on baseless charges. Mr. Abrego has spent the last two weeks contesting his unlawful detention under the Bail Reform Act. In a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further,' attorneys for Abrego Garcia wrote. 'And yet the government—a government that has, at all levels, told the American people that it is bringing Mr. Abrego back home to the United States to face 'American justice' —apparently has little interest in actually bringing this case to trial. Instead, it has chosen to bring Mr. Abrego back only to convict him in the court of public opinion, including with respect to allegations found nowhere in the actual charges.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Mint
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Mint
Fearing Deportation, Abrego Garcia Asks to Stay in Jail for Now
(Bloomberg) -- Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador and then brought back to the US on criminal charges, asked a judge to delay his release from jail for fear of being deported again before trial. The request comes after a lawyer for the Trump administration told a separate federal court on Thursday that the government intended to deport Abrego Garcia to his native El Salvador again, or to a third country, when he was released from custody and before he could be tried on human smuggling charges. Hours later, the Justice Department told the Associated Press it intends to prosecute him on the charges before deporting him, Abrego Garcia's lawyers said. 'Because DOJ has made directly contradictory statements on this issue in the last 18 hours, and because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by the DOJ, we respectfully request to delay the issuance of the release order' until a July 16 hearing, they wrote to US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville on Friday. Holmes directed the government to respond today. The case has become a lightning rod for President Donald Trump's immigration policy, under which the administration has increased deportations of undocumented migrants. Abrego Garcia was taken into immigration custody in March and wrongfully deported to a Salvadoran prison. The Supreme Court in April ordered the administration to facilitate his return, after the US acknowledged that a prior court order had barred his deportation to El Salvador because he could be in danger there. But the government brought Abrego Garcia back to the US to face federal charges that he illegally transported undocumented immigrants. In announcing the charges, Attorney General Pam Bondi said an investigation had determined that he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13 — a claim he denies — and a 'danger to our community.' The Justice Department didn't immediately reply to an email seeking comment on Friday's filing. Abrego Garcia's lawyers told Holmes their client had spent the last two weeks contesting his detention and the 'sham' case against him. They said they had been seeking his release before trial, until the government described its intentions. 'The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,' they said in their filing. 'After illegally removing Mr. Abrego to El Salvador, the government retrieved him, brought him to this district and indicted him on baseless charges.' They said 'in a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further.' The criminal case is US v. Abrego Garcia, 25-cr-115, US District Court, Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville). More stories like this are available on
The Hill
19 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Abrego Garcia asks to delay release from jail amid Trump threats of deportation
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked that he remain in a Tennessee jail for several more weeks after the Trump administration said they plan to swiftly deport him to a third country if he is released. The Friday filing from Abrego Garcia's team in his Tennessee criminal case comes after prosecutors on Thursday told a Maryland judge they would plan to deport the man to a country other than El Salvador if he was released from custody. 'Because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by the DOJ, we respectfully request to delay the issuance of the release order,' the attorneys wrote, saying that the Justice Department must 'provide reliable information concerning its intentions.' Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to a megaprison in El Salvador despite a 2019 order from an immigration court judge barring his removal to his home country. Abrego Garcia spent months in the Salvadoran prison system despite multiple court orders directing the Trump administration to facilitate his return. He was brought back to the U.S. earlier this month as the Justice Department announced it would bring human trafficking charges against Abrego Garcia stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. A Tennessee judge ordered Abrego Garcia be released during the trial, finding he was not a flight risk or a public safety threat. In Thursday's court hearing in Maryland, prosecutors said they planned to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country other than El Salvador, though they said such plans were 'not imminent.' However, Abrego Garcia's lawyers noted that in comments to The Associated Press, the Justice Department said that Abrego Garcia would first face trial before being deported. 'The irony of this request is not lost on anyone. After illegally removing Mr. Abrego to El Salvador, the government retrieved him, brought him to this District, and indicted him on baseless charges. Mr. Abrego has spent the last two weeks contesting his unlawful detention under the Bail Reform Act. In a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further,' attorneys for Abrego Garcia wrote. 'And yet the government—a government that has, at all levels, told the American people that it is bringing Mr. Abrego back home to the United States to face 'American justice' —apparently has little interest in actually bringing this case to trial. Instead, it has chosen to bring Mr. Abrego back only to convict him in the court of public opinion, including with respect to allegations found nowhere in the actual charges.'
