Kilmer Abrego Garcia released by judge with immediate release order
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A Venezuelan man who was deported from the United States and sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging false imprisonment and negligence.
Neierfer Adrian Leon Lengel, 28, filed a lawsuit in federal court on March 24, seeking $1.3 million in damages. Lengyel was arrested on March 13, 2025, his birthday, after using the Biden administration-era app CBP One to enter the United States in 2023 to seek asylum. According to the complaint, Lengyel lived in Texas and worked as a barber before his arrest.
He was one of more than 250 Venezuelans deported to El Salvadoran prisons in 2025 in violation of a U.S. court order.
Lengel’s lawyer, Norm Engel, said in a statement to Reuters that the months that followed were marked by “abhorrent and inhumane conditions.” The suit says he was subjected to “continuous, cruel and unusual punishment.”
Lengel was eventually repatriated to Venezuela in July 2025 as part of a prisoner exchange.
“This case reveals an illegal and morally deficient plan of action at the highest levels of our nation’s government to defy a federal court, strip a man of his rights, and hand him over to a foreign government for torture in order to prove a political point,” Engel said.
According to the complaint, Lengyel entered the United States seeking asylum pending a court hearing in his immigration case scheduled for 2028. He had also applied for temporary protected status in 2024, but the application was pending.
The lawsuit alleges that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ only justification for arresting Lengel was that his “tattoos indicated membership in the violent Venezuelan prison gang, Torren de Aragua.” Lengel said he had never belonged to a gang or had any involvement with Torren de Aragua.
Lengyel’s tattoos include the names of a mother and daughter, a barbershop and a tiger, according to the complaint.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Lengyel entered the country illegally and was an “associate” of Torren de Aragua. DHS said he was “considered to be a threat to public safety.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for comment on this claim.
Lengel was “misunderstood” to be sent to his native Venezuela, but was instead put on one of the planes transporting suspected gang members to El Salvador’s CECOT (Confinement Center for Terrorism or Confinement of Terrorism).
Lengyel was “severely beaten” while incarcerated at CECOT, according to the lawsuit. The complaint says he was subjected to overcrowding, psychological trauma and lack of medical care.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process and false imprisonment.
Contribute; Reuters
