Detainees at the Blue Belt Immigration Detention Center in Anson, Texas, sent a message to the outside world this week: SOS.
On Monday, 31 men flew in a nearby Reuters drone and formed letters in the facility’s dirt yard.
Ten days ago, immigration officials issued a notice to dozens of Venezuelan detainees in the center, saying they were members of the Venezuelan Gang Gang Tren de Aragua and were deported under wartime laws.
The families of seven detainees interviewed by Reuters said they were not members of the gang and they refused to sign the document.
Still, according to the ACLU and family members, a few hours after Friday, April 18, they were loaded on a bus heading to the nearby Abilene Regional Airport, which was then turned around and sent back to the detention center.
That night, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked their deportation. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the ceased deportation.
It is a probation for the Venezuelans detained on Bluebonnet, who may still be sent to Cecot, the notorious highest security prison in El Salvador, and if the Supreme Court raises that seat, the Trump administration sent at least 137 Venezuelans in the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798.
Located 200 miles (322 km) west of Dallas, the Bluebonnet facility is privately operated by management and training companies, which operates under contracts with immigration and customs enforcement. According to ICE detention data, it is named after the state of Texas, with an average of 846 detainees per day.
Reuters refused to enter the ICE last week into the Bluebonnet facility, flew over a small plane last week and collected aerial images of detainees on April 28 in a nearby drone. Some of the detainees photographed by Reuters were wearing red jumpsuits, designated them as high risk.
Reuters took a photo with 24-year-old Diover Millan, who was travelling with four other men in the yard of the detention center. Another Venezuelan, 19-year-old Jeferson Escalona, was filmed for football. Reuters identified the other three by showing photos to their family.
Milan has moved to Bluebonnet from the Stewart Detention Center in Lupkin, Georgia in mid-April and has been in jail since he was arrested by immigrant agents in the suburb of Atlanta on March 12, according to senior security officials of the Department of Homeland Security. Reuters cannot find a criminal record in Milan, who once worked in construction. Homeland Security officials said Milan was a "record" member of Tren de Aragua, but provided no evidence.
DHS officials said ICE detained Escalona in January 2025 after being arrested by local police for evading driving a car. In February, he arrived in Bluebang after returning from the U.S. immigration detention center in Guantanamo Bay.
Department of Homeland Security officials said Escalona was a member of Tren de Aragua who was “self-attractive” but did not provide evidence of the claim.
In a phone interview with Bluebonnet, Escalona said he had no relationship with Tren de Aragua or any gang. He said he was a police officer in Venezuela. When they detained him, U.S. authorities picked up his phone and he suspected they saw the gesture he made, saying he said it was common in Venezuela.
"They made the wrong allegations against me," he said. "I am not part of any gang."
Escalona said he had requested a voluntary return to Venezuela but was denied.
"I'm worried about my life," he said. "I want to go to Venezuela."
Over the past few years, thousands of Venezuelans have come to the United States to escape economic collapse and what critics call authoritarian repression under Nicolas Maduro.
Under the management of former President Joe Biden, many have received temporary humanitarian protections that the Trump administration has tried to revoke.
Their families said the men have been on the edge since their deportation was suspended.
Milan's wife said that in Milan's dormitory, he took turns sleeping with some other Venezuelans so that they could remind their families that if immigration officials began deportation, they asked not to get their name for fear of being attacked by immigration officials.
One day last week, he told her the men in the dormitory refused to enter the yard because they were worried they would take another bus and take it to El Salvador.
"He was desperate," Milan's wife said. “He told me that when he walked into the fields he sat down and looked at the sky and asked God to take him out there as soon as possible.”
In a recent video call, Milan told his wife that they didn’t get much food and that he tried to sleep more to make him less hungry, she said, relatives of other detainees reverberated.
A spokesperson for the management and training company that runs the facility said: “All detainees accommodated by Blue Skin are received according to menus approved by certified nutritionists to ensure that recommended daily calorie intake is met.”
"Using multiple strategies to manage capabilities while adhering to federal standards and our commitment to humane treatment," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
An immigration official visited the dormitory in Escalona on Saturday, April 26 and answered some of the detainees’ questions, according to a recording of the visit obtained by Reuters.
The men talked wildly to each other, wondering why the government tried to send them to El Salvador and what happened to their immigration court date.
The official explained that the U.S. attempted to remove it under the Foreign Enemy Act, which is different from their planned immigration court hearings.
The official said in English to the person who was translating: "If he was removed from office under the Foreign Enemy Act, then the court date would not exist and he would never have it."
Several of them wonder how they are classified as “alien enemies” when they are not members of the gang and do not commit crimes.
"How would they send me to El Salvador if I had no criminal record in the three countries I live in?" asked one of the people in the recording. Reuters cannot establish his identity immediately.
The official said he was not involved in the intelligence gathering.
Last week, several men heard a hearing in immigration cases and advocated finding a lawyer for them.
Millan has a pending asylum case and his next hearing is scheduled for May 1.
Unless he was sent to El Salvador before this.