'Terrorist' tattoos cited by Homeland Security 'stolen from the internet': legal expert

Lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the Immigration Council, did a reverse image search of photos of tattoos the Department of Homeland Security claims represent the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Over the weekend, the ACLU obtained ICE's "Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide," which the union said "confirms all it takes to be sent to rot in prison in El Salvador is 1) having a tattoo an ICE officer says is a 'gang tattoo' and 2) displaying 'logos,' 'symbols,' or clothes an ICE officer says are gang signs," said Reichlin-Melnick.

In the ICE documents were images showing examples of the body art.

Reichlin-Melnick discovered that many of the tattoos listed by DHS come from a New York Post piece published in 2024.

And he wrote on X, "Reverse image search shows these images were stolen from the internet and have nothing to do with TdA!"

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One of the tattoos shows the Nike Air Jordan logo with the number 23 underneath it — the number Michael Jordan used when he played for the Chicago Bulls. According to the New York Post, it's a "Jump-Man" tattoo and "refers to 23 de Enero ... a Venezuelan neighborhood."

"It's Michael Jordan's number, guys," said Reichlin-Melnick. He did a reverse image search and found it was posted by a Michael Jordan fan account on Twitter in 2015.

Reichlin-Melnick also posted a tattoo of an AK-47 included in the ICE Homeland Security Investigations "intelligence report." He found the tattoo was taken from an artist in Turkey who had posted it on his profile.

A Train image, "which the New York Post described as a 'shout-out to the gang's origins ... as a railroad labor union in Aragua, Venezuela,' dates back to at least 2015, where it can be found on a random blog listing '70 Train Tattoo Ideas for Men,'" he revealed on X.

Another image was traced to the Pinterest page of a Thai tattoo parlor, which appeared to be nothing more than someone's initials.

The Miami Herald reported that one of the men flown from the U.S. to El Salvador as a suspected gang member, Gustavo Adolfo Aguilera Agüero, had three tattoos that his mother said are a "story of love and loyalty." One is a crown with the name of his son. The Herald said that another is a "star with his own name and his mother’s name, and the inscription Real Hasta La Muerte' ('Real Until Death') across his arm" — a reference to the soccer club Real Madrid.

Slate reported one tattoo of a nautical star with the words “La Paz—BCS,” referring to the birthplace of Daniel Ramirez Medina of La Paz in Baja California Sur. Medina was arrested by ICE, which claimed he was an “egregious public safety concern." He is a DACA recipient and is in the U.S. legally, the report stated.

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