According to Ms. Casique, her son had no gang affiliation and had entered the United States to seek asylum in late 2023 after several years spent working in Peru to support his family back home. During his journey north, he had been injured in Mexico after a fall from a train, she said.
Mr. García, who had turned himself over to the authorities at the U.S. border, was detained at a routine appearance before immigration officers last year after they spotted his tattoos, Ms. Casique said.
The tattoos, which she says include a crown with the word “peace” in Spanish and the names of his mother, grandmother and sisters, led the authorities to place Mr. García under investigation and label him as a suspected member of Tren de Aragua, according to Ms. Casique.
Mr. García remained in a detention center in Dallas for two months, his mother said, but a judge ultimately decided that he did not pose a danger and allowed him to be released as long as he wore an electronic device to track his movements.
The New York Times could not independently verify why he had been held and released.
After Mr. Trump’s inauguration this year Mr. García became worried, but Ms. Casique remembered telling her son that he had nothing to fear: The administration said it would go after criminals first.
But, on Feb. 6, the authorities arrived at Mr. García’s door and took him into custody.
“I told him to follow the country’s rules, that he wasn’t a criminal, and at most, they would deport him,” Ms. Casique said. “But I was very naïve — I thought the laws would protect him.”
Gabriel Labrador contributed reporting from San Salvador, El Salvador.
