Homeland security apparently used British man's tattoo to identify alleged gang members
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The tattoo featuring a clock, indicated in red,
was also included in a Texas department of public safety document to identify gang affiliation.
Texas department of public safety
A British man was shocked to discover that a photo of his tattoo was included in a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document used to identify alleged members of a notorious Venezuelan criminal gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA).
Earlier this week, 44-year-old Pete Belton, who lives in the English county of Derbyshire, told the BBC that he was stunned to find a photo of his forearm tattoo featured in a DHS document among nine images of tattoos intended to assist in "detecting and identifying" TdA members.
Belton, who says he has no connection to the Venezuelan group, expressed his disbelief, telling the BBC: "I'm just an average middle-aged man from Derbyshire."
Trump administration lists thousands of living immigrants as dead to prompt them to leaveRead more
The DHS document notes that open source material "has depicted TdA members with a combination of the below tattoos".
Among them appears to be Belton's tattoo, which depicts a clock face with the date and time of his daughter's birth, as well as other tattoos which include stars, skulls, the Michael Jordan "jump man" basketball logo, crowns and guns.
The BBC reported that it conducted reverse image searches for some of the tattoos depicted, and discovered that several of the images first appeared on tattoo websites with no obvious connections to TdA or any other gangs.
They traced the image of Belton's tattoo to an Instagram post from nearly a decade ago by a Nottingham-based UK tattoo artist.
Belton said that initially he found it a "bit strange" and a "bit funny" that his tattoo was in the document, but now he is worried about a planned family trip to Miami in August with his wife and daughter, and that it might turn into a "six month all-inclusive holiday to Guantanamo", he said.
"In my head I'm thinking if I'm working in border force and I saw me walking through I'd think 'hey-up we've got one, he's the one in the document'," he told the BBC.
The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.
The same image of Belton's tattoo also seemingly appears in a report by the Texas department of public safety (DPS) about TdA activity.
The DPS also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of individuals it alleges to be members of TdA, sending them to a notorious prison in El Salvador without even a court hearing.
But in recent weeks, questions regarding the accuracy of these gang allegations have intensified, with lawyers arguing that some of the deportees were misidentified as a result of their tattoos.
Lawyers representing one man say that he was deported over a crown tattoo, which he says is inspired by the Real Madrid football team logo.
In another case, lawyers representing a makeup artist say he was deported after officials deemed his crown tattoos proof that he was a member of TdA. But his lawyers assert that his tattoos reference only the Three Kings Epiphany celebrations.
Whatever
Tags
Who is online
45 visitors
Eh!
So maybe some spics got screwed.
Who gives a fuck?
I never thoughout my whole life had any desire to get a tatoo, and it has always eluded me why anyone even wanted one. IMO getting a tatoo is tantamount to painting oneself blue in order to look different or, in their own minds, superior to others. It makes me think of when Benjamin D'Israeli was Prime Minister of England, and was insulted in Parliament by leader of the opposition, Gladstone, D'Israeli said "When your ancestors were painting themselves blue and hiding in caves, mine were priests in the Temple of David." In other words, I consider tatoos to be some kind of neanderthal thing.
When I was young tattoos were transitioning from edgy into accepted. I didn’t have any and I was noticing how these things that at one time made someone unique were becoming so ubiquitous that now the only way to be unique is to not have one. Still don’t have any, for that reason. I bet there’s a lot of people now that wish they wouldn’t have joined that club. This justice dept. could find gang ties in a tweety bird tattoo.
This "Justice Department" is an oxymoron on steroids.
I have 2 and would like more, but it's an expense hard to justify.
The expense pales in comparison to being disappeared for offending dear leader.
But what if you just can't live without...
or
I’d never won’t get one of those.
"So maybe some spics got screwed. Who gives a fuck?" Sounds pretty racist.
I suspect they have other evidence than tattoos that makes them deportable
Sounded a lot like sarcasm to me. Sounds like he was channeling a rightwing conservative Trump supporter perspective expressing what we all know they're thinking when they hear about this case but won't say it because that would expose their true feelings and agenda which aren't palatable in public. The rightwing conservative white nationalist racists of today prefer to stay closeted while still practicing their racist hate behind closed doors.
Some people are kinda "surface only"...
Empty bags...