Migrants being detained at a Texas prison while they await deportation spelled out SOS with their bodies on Monday.
Drone footage captured by Reuters has gone viral and shows 31 detainees in the yard of the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson.
In the clip, the migrants can be seen banding together to form the distress signal of SOS with their bodies.
Highlights
- 31 migrants detained in Texas formed a giant SOS with their bodies at Bluebonnet Detention Facility, captured in viral drone footage.
- Migrants face deportation to CECOT, a notorious supermax prison in El Salvador known for harsh, cramped conditions and no visitation.
- A federal court blocked the Trump administration's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members from Texas.
Migrants fear being deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador
Image credits: Getty Images
About 10 days before the stunt, many of the inmates were accused of being in the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua criminal gang and told they would be deported to a notorious El Salvador prison, Reuters reported.
The Trump administration has been deporting alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
On Thursday, a federal court in southern Texas blocked the Trump administration from using the law against anyone in the court’s judicial district.
As a result, migrants from Bluebonnet who were on their way to a nearby airport for deportation were returned to the facility.
Image credits: Getty Images
The judge ruled that the administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act does not meet the “invasion” or “predatory incursion” requirement in the law.
The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Texas brought the lawsuit to halt the removals.
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said: “The court ruled the president can’t unilaterally declare an invasion of the United States and invoke a wartime authority during peacetime.
“Congress never meant for this 18th-century wartime law to be used this way.
“This is a critically important decision that prevents more people from being sent to the notorious CECOT prison.”
Image credits: ABC News
If the court ruling is reversed, the detained migrants could still be sent to CECOT.
The Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), often referred to as the “World’s Worst Prison,” is a supermax penitentiary in El Salvador, and hundreds of migrants have been deported there from the U.S.
The notorious prison was opened in 2023 and does not allow visitation or outdoor time.
It is reportedly cramped, with little space for inmates to move inside the cells due to the large number of people sharing them.
In response to the viral SOS footage, the Department of Homeland Security said the real story “is that the Biden administration was releasing gang members into American communities.”
In a post on X, the department referred to two alleged gang members who were being held at the facility.
“Jeferson Daniel Escalona Hernandez, a self-admitted Tren de Aragua gang member, illegally entered the country on March 27, 2024,” the post read.
Homeland Security claimed the Biden administration was releasing gang members into the U.S.
Image credits: DHSgov
“He was arrested for felony evading arrest with a vehicle. He remains in ICE custody at the Bluebonnet Detention Center pending deportation.”
In a phone interview with Reuters, Escalona Hernandez said he was a police officer back home in Venezuela and denied being a part of any gang.
“They’re making false accusations about me,” he said. “I don’t belong to any gang.”
“I fear for my life here,” Escalona Hernandez added. “I want to go to Venezuela.”
“Diover Millan Leon, a Venezuelan and documented member of Tren de Aragua, illegally entered the U.S. on an unknown date and at an unknown location,” Homeland Security continued.
“The U.S. Border Patrol arrested Millan on May 3, 2023, and released under the previous administration. Millan was arrested by ICE in Georgia on March 12, 2025, and remains at Bluebonnet.”
So far, the U.S. has deported more than 200 migrants to the notorious CECOT in El Salvador, most of them Venezuelans.