Angel Blanco Marin

Angel Blanco-Marin came to the US in 2022. He is now located in CECOT. 

Coming to the US

Although his father did not want him to leave, he understood the reasons.  There were food shortages and long lines. Angel arrived in New York City three years ago after a nearly two month journey from Venezuela through the Darien jungle to the southern border of the US and Mexico.  Once he arrived at the border, he turned himself in to immigration authorities.  Because he was an unaccompanied minor at the time, he was sent to a shelter in New York.  Months later, he reunited with his Venezuelan friend, Fabian Olmos, with whom he rented a room in the Bronx.

Things got difficult when both men lost their jobs and went to live with another friend, Fuentes, in a tent set up in a neighborhood park.  They bathed at a nearby gym and scrounged for whatever food they could find.  After almost two months, they had scrounged enough funds together to get off the streets.

Tattoos

Like the other men expelled to El Salvadoe, Angel had a tattoo on his neck that says “Valles represents.”  This was a permanent reminder of his hometown Valles del Tuy. He also got tattoos later while living with a tattoo artist in the Bronx.  These include a spaceship, Donald duck, a Chinese character, his mother’s name, and the name of a friend, Katherine.  These tattoos are not indicative of gang activity and it has been confirmed that Angel had no police record in any of the countries where he has lived.

Detained and expelled 

In the days leading up to his detention, Angel was visiting his friend, Fabian Olmos, in New Jersey.  They were rehearsing a song and filming a music video in Olmos’ garage.  Angel left Olmos that day and went back to the Bronx where he working delivering food for UberEats.  Two days later, on February 24, Angel joined two other friends outside an apartment building in the Bronx. According to witnesses, two dozen ICE agents arrived at the building. Angel, along with Merwil Gutierrez and Joen Suarez Fuentes, were all arrested and detained that night at the police station, unaware of why they had been detained.  

Angel called his friend Fabian Olmos and told him that officers drove him to the nearby police station before being transferred days later to a detention center in Pennsylvania, and then to the Valle Detention Facility in Texas.  In his calls to Olmos, he didn’t speak about life in detention for fear of being overheard.  Instead he called to encourage Olmos to continue making music.  Olmos has said Angel is not involved in criminal activity.

On March 13, Angel called another Venezuelan friend, Silvery Lopez, asking Lopez to get in touch with his father to let him know he was being deported to Venezuela the next day.  His father began preparing for his arrival, happy that he would be coming home.  Traveling to Simon Bolivar International Airport, where flights with US deportees arrive, his father could not locate Angel.  Lopez called the Texas detention center and was told that Angel was still detained there.  Days later, though, Angel’s family and friends saw the images of the men in CECOT.  Although they did not see any images of Angel, a published list confirmed his name among the men now in CECOT.

Source: https://documentedny.com/2025/05/05/angel-blanco-marin-new-york-deported-cecot-el-salvador-merwil-gutierrez/