Wilken Rafael Flores Jiménez, 24, decided to migrate to the United States in August 2024. His first stop was Colombia, where he stayed for a week before continuing his journey to Mexico. He worked there while waiting for his appointment, which he had requested to enter the country legally with the CPB-One app. His entry appointment was scheduled for December 7 of 2024.
According to Wilken’s mother, Reina Jiménez, Wilken showed up for his CPB-one appointment and was detained the same day. He hasn’t been free since. Wilken told his mother that ICE officials accused him of belonging to Tren de Aragua because he had several tattoos on his body. Wilken has rose and crown tattoos on his chest. These tattoos were used to identify people as members of the criminal gang, Tren de Aragua, despite experts on the gang saying there is no connection between these tattoos and Tren de Aragua membership.
While in detention, Wilken passed his credible fear test which is the first step in an asylum claim. He had a court date while detained and there they asked him for some documents such as criminal records, a letter of good conduct.
“I sent all of that to the United States. In fact, I sent it to the judge who had his case, I don't remember the name very well, but I sent it to the judge and the judge replied to my sister, who was his intermediary,” said Reina.
“My son has no criminal record; he doesn't belong to any of the Tren de Aragua gang; they only judged him by his tattoos,” she added.
On February 28 2025, Wilken was scheduled to appear in court to continue with his case, but he was not taken from detention to his court date. Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) explained that if the case was not resolved soon, they would investigate why he was being detained, but that didn’t happen either.
“I checked again on the detainee tracker website, and it said Wilken was being deported. He told me, ‘Mom, I asked for voluntary deportation.’ And I said, son, why? He said he wanted to come to Venezuela because he was disillusioned with the treatment he received in the US.” Reina said. At that point he had been held in jail without charges for over three months, despite the US government acknowledging receipt of Wilken’s proof of no criminal record in Venezuela.
The last call Reina had from Wilken was on March 14 2025 in the afternoon, and he said, “Mom, we're on our way to Venezuela.” From that moment on, Reina lost all communication with her son. It was on Sunday March 16th that she found out that some deportees, from the detention center where her son was being held, had been transferred to El Salvador. On Monday, “my friend, who is in the United States, called the detention center and was told that he was no longer in the United States,” said Reina
“I called back myself on Wednesday and they told me, ‘Ma’am, the only thing I can tell you is that your son was deported yesterday’, that is, on Tuesday. And I said, ‘why are you lying if my son is no longer registered in the AIS [online tracking system]?’ ‘The only thing I can tell you is that your son will arrive in Venezuela on Wednesday of next week.’ And he never arrived,” Reina said.
Then Reina watched the videos of the prisoners from the US arriving in El Salvador. “I saw one of the photos, my son sitting on the floor, already without hair and with his hands behind his back.”
“On March 15, 2025 Wilken was transferred to the Cecot (Cecot) in El Salvador. They tricked them," Reina stated.
Reina is a member of a WhatsApp group of family members dealing with the enforced disappearances of their loved ones to CECOT prison by the US. She gets updates about the legal attempts to help her son, and support from the other families, but the stress is negatively affecting her health. “There is a lot of uncertainty and that is causing us symptoms such as anxiety or insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability,” she said.
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