CBP Agents Can Have Gang Tattoos — as Long as They Cover Them Up

Photo: Arrest of gang members by HSI Gang Unit. Houston, Texas March 7, 2016. Photo credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via DVIDS. Public Domain. Article by Noah Hurowitz. The Intercept – July 16, 2025.

When Franco José Caraballo Tiapa arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in early February for a routine check-in, he thought he had little reason to worry. Caraballo, 26, had arrived in the U.S. in 2023 after fleeing persecution in Venezuela, lived with his wife in Dallas, and had no criminal record, his immigration attorney Martin Rosenow told The Intercept. He’d checked in with ICE regularly while waiting on his asylum claim. But when an agent took special interest in his tattoos, they detained him and put him on a bus to the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas — and eventually on a plane to CECOT. […]

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Updates on the disappeared Venezuelans:

Venezuela releases jailed Americans in deal that frees migrants deported to El Salvador by US – AP News

Trump admin: Maduro will send back Alien Enemies Act deportees if US court orders return – Politico

“We Were Kidnapped” – Mother Jones