Venezuelan Man Sues U.S. Over “Total Hell” He Endured in CECOT Prison

Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, a 28-year-old Venezuelan man deported by the Trump administration to CECOT prison in El Salvador, is trying to make sure what happened to him will never happen again.

CBS News confirmed Leon Rengel had filed a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit on Tuesday against the U.S., seeking $1.3 million in damages for false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Leon Rengel was one of hundreds of immigrants deported to CECOT, a notoriously inhumane institution, for four months before being released in a prisoner swap in July 2025. He alleges that he was beaten and abused by guards, and forced to drink the water that himself and other prisoners had washed themselves in.

“There came a point when I thought about hanging myself with the sheet they gave us,” Leon Rengel told CBS News in Spanish.

A report from Human Rights Watch has documented how Venuezelans endured “arbitrary detention,” “torture,” and sexual abuse at CECOT.

The lawsuit also alleges that Leon Rengel, who had an active asylum case at the time of his deportation, had no criminal record besides one misdemeanor—in which he paid a small fine for possession of drug paraphernalia—and that the Department of Homeland Security incorrectly determined he was a gang member because he had a tattoo of a lion and a hair clipper.

Leon Rengel told CBS News he was a barber and was not part of any gang. Others at CECOT have also said they were told their tattoos were the reason they were detained.

DHS continues to claim Leon Rengel was a gang member, though they told CBS that providing any proof of this would “undermine” national security.

Regardless of whether you think immigrants should be allowed to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, the federal government is meant to abide by due process laws and wait for deportation cases to be heard before taking action. The Trump administration not only illegally sent people out of the country, but sent them to prisons to be tortured. It amounts to one of the cruelest of the many crimes committed by the Trump regime. We can only hope Leon Rengel gets his day in court.