\n<\/p>\n
As of Saturday morning, the White House had not immediately responded to a request from Reuters for comment. When President Trump was asked on Friday about the planned deportations of the Venezuelan men, he claimed he was unfamiliar with the particular case, but said that \u201cif they\u2019re bad people,\u201d he would \u201ccertainly authorize it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2014including the president, Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller<\/strong><\/a>, Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/strong><\/a>, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem<\/strong><\/a>, and other immigration officials\u2014have in the few months since taking office<\/a> rolled out a coordinated onslaught<\/a> against immigrants, both documented and not, across the country. This comes after Trump, when running for office, referred<\/a> to immigrants as \u201canimals\u201d and said<\/a> that they are \u201cpoisoning the blood of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n In March, more than 130 men whom the Trump administration claimed were Tren de Aragua members were deported to El Salvador. Family members and lawyers for the men have said they were singled out<\/a> because of tattoos that they have, but an expert on the gang told<\/a> NBC that tattoos are not closely connected with affiliation to Tren de Aragua and that \u201cVenezuelan gangs are not identified by tattoos.\u201d (Immigration officials have maintained that they did not solely rely on tattoos to identify the deportees as alleged gang members.)<\/p>\n