Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, 28, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking at least $1.3 million after he says he was deported from the United States and held in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison last year. The complaint, lodged in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the first known suit brought by a former CECOT detainee seeking monetary damages from the U.S. government.
Leon Rengel alleges that he and other Venezuelan men deported in March 2025 were kept incommunicado at CECOT for roughly four months and suffered widespread physical and psychological abuse. In court papers and an interview, he described repeated beatings by guards, being forced to drink the same water used for bathing, threats he would be locked up for 90 years, and a period when he contemplated ending his own life. His lawsuit asserts claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act for false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Independent investigators and news organizations have reported similar accounts from other deportees. Human Rights Watch and reporting by CBS News and 60 Minutes documented allegations of physical abuse, overcrowded and inhumane conditions, inadequate medical care, arbitrary detention, and instances the researchers described as torture. Several former detainees also reported sexual assault.
According to the lawsuit, Leon Rengel was denied contact with family and legal counsel while at CECOT. The filing was supported by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Democracy Defenders Fund; LULAC CEO Juan Proaño called the treatment ‘‘government‑sanctioned torture’’ and said Leon Rengel should have his day in court. An administrative complaint was submitted to the Department of Homeland Security on his behalf last year.
Leon Rengel was among several hundred Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used wartime statute that the government invoked to characterize the migrants as public‑safety risks and remove them with limited procedural protections. That use of the law has faced legal challenges. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., recently ordered the administration to start facilitating the return of Venezuelans removed under the statute so they can obtain the due process the judge found was denied; that directive is currently being appealed.
U.S. authorities have asserted that many of the deportees had ties to the Tren de Aragua gang. Investigative reporting, however, found that numerous men had no criminal convictions or records of violent offenses and denied any gang affiliation. Leon Rengel says he was labeled a gang associate because of a tattoo of a lion holding a hair clipper on his hand, which he says reflects his work as a barber, not membership in a criminal organization. He maintains he has never been a gang member.
Leon Rengel entered the United States in 2023 through CBP One, a program the Biden administration uses to process asylum seekers at official entry points. He has one prior U.S. conviction: a Texas misdemeanor guilty plea after a traffic stop that involved possession of drug paraphernalia; he says the vehicle in question was not his and that the matter resulted only in a small fine. His attorneys say he has no other criminal history and that Justice Department records do not show a final deportation order for him; those records indicated he had an immigration court hearing scheduled for April 2028.
DHS told CBS News it believes Leon Rengel has links to Tren de Aragua but declined to disclose evidence, saying release would harm national security. Leon Rengel, who returned to Venezuela after being freed in a July 2025 prisoner swap, says he is focused on clearing his name and holding the U.S. government accountable for what he describes as violations of his human rights, rather than seeking to return immediately to the United States.