Why tattoos are such an unreliable marker of gang club

The USA deported 238 Venezuelan males on 3 flights to El Salvador on March 15, 2025, claiming that they had been participants of the Tren de Aragua gang that originated in Venezuela.

Immigration officers have stated that tattoos weren’t the only standards used when deciding whom to deport; then again, a central authority file confirmed that officers trusted tattoos and clothes to decide gang club.

A legal professional for Jerce Reyes Barrios, a certified football participant who is without doubt one of the Venezuelans deported to El Salvador, says the federal government detained and deported her consumer as a result of he has a tattoo of a football ball with a crown on best, which resembles the emblem of his favourite football staff, Actual Madrid. The tattoo and {a photograph} of Barrios creating a hand signal that suggests “I really like you” in signal language are the one two items of proof the federal government has offered of his gang ties, consistent with the legal professional.

In the meantime, deported Venezuelan make-up artist Andry José Hernández Romero has a tattoo of a crown on each and every wrist, one with “Dad” and one with “Mother” written subsequent to each and every crown. Immigration government indicated in his report that those tattoos had been “figuring out components to conclude affordable suspicion” of his club within the Tren de Aragua gang. Some executive resources checklist crowns as a tattoo commonplace for Tren de Aragua participants, however different executive resources solid doubt on that declare.

The tattoos at the wrists of Andry José Hernández Romero, who says he used to be wrongly recognized as a gang member via the Trump management.
David Alandete/X

Whether or not or now not the Trump management used tattoos as a sole standards for deportation, I’ve present in my very own analysis that merely the usage of tattoos as any form of standards can lead regulation enforcement off track.

In 2023, I analyzed the reliability of tattoos as markers of gang club within the Washington Legislation Assessment.

The base line: Whilst many of us in gangs have tattoos that reveal their club, many of us who’ve completely no gang ties additionally get an identical tattoos.

Depending on them to decide gang club has resulted in systematically misidentifying other people as gang participants – in particular as tattoos have turn out to be extra standard.

There are some sorts of tattoos that may be particularly deceptive.

Geographic origins

In 2017, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Daniel Ramirez Medina, who used to be lawfully in america beneath the Deferred Motion for Youth Arrivals program, or DACA. The federal government tried to strip his standing and deport him, claiming he used to be a gang member because of a tattoo that learn “Los angeles Paz BCS.” Los angeles Paz is the capital of the Mexican state Baja California Sur, which is abbreviated “BCS.” The one proof of gang club that ICE brokers offered in immigration courtroom used to be this tattoo.

However they lost sight of the truth that tattoos depicting the names or house codes of hometowns or nations of starting place are a commonplace manner for other people to honor the place they got here from.

That is in particular the case for individuals who migrate or transfer clear of their homelands. As an example, tattoos of “503” and “504” – the rustic codes used to dial El Salvador and Honduras, respectively – were relied upon to allege gang club, at the same time as many of us who’ve those tattoos deny any gang ties and haven’t any prison information. Legislation enforcement has additionally trusted tattoos of the phrases “Mexican,” “Chicano” or “Brown Delight” as proof of gang club.

Some gangs, such because the Mexican Mafia, come with a connection with nationality within the title of the group. And within the U.S., side road gangs are frequently based totally in explicit neighborhoods, with many gangs incorporating the town or side road the place they’re based totally into gang names and related tattoos. Because of this, tattoos celebrating a town or nation can most effective result in confusion.

Tattoos of Mayan or Aztec photographs have additionally been used to designate other people as gang participants, despite the fact that those tattoos are transparent expressions of cultural id and don’t essentially have any nexus to gang club. Whilst some gangs do use explicit Aztec symbols to spot participants, it’s just about inconceivable to tell apart a tattoo of cultural or geographic importance from a tattoo indicating gang affiliation.

With regards to Medina, U.S. District Pass judgement on Ricardo S. Martinez, a George W. Bush appointee, ordered that his DACA standing stay in position and that he be secure from deportation as a result of ICE’s “conclusory findings” that he used to be a gang member had been “contradicted via professionals and different proof.” Moreover, an immigration pass judgement on who reviewed the entire proof had already concluded that he used to be now not in a gang.

Martinez used to be obviously disturbed via ICE’s claims, writing, “Maximum troubling to the Courtroom is the continuing statement that Mr. Ramirez is gang-affiliated, regardless of offering no proof explicit to Mr. Ramirez to the Immigration Courtroom in connection together with his administrative complaints, and providing no proof to this Courtroom to reinforce its assertions 4 months later.”

Spiritual imagery and popular culture

Tattoos of standard Catholic non secular photographs, such because the Virgin of Guadalupe, praying palms and rosaries, have additionally been used to label other people as gang participants, a transfer that will appear to be obviously overbroad.

Whilst some gang participants could also be Catholic, no person would even attempt to allege that every one Catholics are gang participants. A minimum of one of the vital deported Venezuelan males had a tattoo of a rosary, along side tattoos of a clock and the names of his mom and niece with crowns atop the textual content.

Tattoos have additionally turn out to be crucial manner for other people to have fun pop culture. Tattoos of a girl’s lips, as an example, have turn out to be standard amongst gang participants and non-gang participants alike. Quite a lot of skilled athletes, together with football phenom Lionel Messi, have tattoos in their spouse’s lips. Then again, this could also be a tattoo regulation enforcement makes use of to categorize other people as gang participants.

Consistent with the Texas Division of Public Protection, tattoos of stars on shoulders, crowns, firearms, grenades, trains, cube, roses, tigers and jaguars are commonplace amongst participants of Tren de Aragua.

The problem, after all, is that those symbols also are standard amongst other people without a connection to the group.

Obscure method

Working out the issue in point of fact comes all the way down to math. Whilst it can be true that many gang participants have tattoos of the pictures indexed above, it’s also true that many non-gang participants have an identical tattoos.

The Bayesian mathematical means comes to making inferences about chances according to to be had knowledge. The chance {that a} gang member has a definite tattoo isn’t the similar because the chance that a person who has a definite tattoo is a gang member.

The U.S. executive appears to be wrongfully equating the 2.

Writing in regards to the broader issues of discerning gang club in 2009, sociologist David Kennedy argued that the regulation’s incapacity to plan regulations “that obviously distinguish a gang and a soccer staff, or a gang member and his mom” means that taking “felony motion, according to obscure language [is] one thing of an issue.”

This drawback turns into magnified when there’s no due procedure for the accused – which is precisely what took place to the Venezuelan males whisked off to El Salvador.