A group of men at a migrant detention facility in Texas have used their bodies to send out a distress cry to the rest of the world: S-O-S.
The men at the Bluebonnet facility in Anson, Texas, were in the facility’s yard when they spotted a drone flying by and quickly formed the letters by getting into position and spreading out their arms.
“S-O-S” is a universally-recognized distress code calling for help or rescue.
According to Reuters, who owns the drone, the display came 10 days after dozens of Venezuelan detainees at the centre were given notices by immigration officials that alleged they were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and subject to deportation under a wartime law.
The families of seven detainees interviewed by Reuters said they were not gang members and that they refused to sign the document.
Nevertheless, hours later on April 18, they were loaded onto a bus bound for nearby Abilene Regional Airport, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and family members, before the bus was turned around and sent back to the detention centre.
That night, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked their deportations under an 18th-century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The Supreme Court had said earlier in April that deportations could proceed only if those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.
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The act has only been invoked three previous times in U.S. history, most recently during the Second World War to hold Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration contended it gave them power to swiftly remove immigrants they identified as members of the gang, regardless of their immigration status.
The Bluebonnet facility, located just over 300 km west of Dallas, is privately run by the Management and Training Corporation under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Named after the state flower of Texas, it has held an average of 846 detainees a day in fiscal year 2025, according to ICE detention data.
Bluebonnet Detention Center on Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Anson, Texas.
Eli Hartman / The Associated Press
After being denied access to the Bluebonnet facility by ICE, Reuters flew a small plane over the centre last week as well as a drone nearby on April 28 to gather aerial images of the detainees being held there. Some of the detainees photographed by Reuters were wearing red jumpsuits, designating them as high risk.
Under Joe Biden’s administration, thousands of Venezuelans, fleeing economic collapse, were given temporary humanitarian protections. Trump, however, is trying to strip those protections and send them back to Venezuela.
Recent media reports have detailed stressful and desperate conditions at Bluebonnet: some men refuse to go outside because they’re afraid they will be put onto buses and deported to El Salvador, some sleep in shifts to keep an eye on any deportations and report what they witnessed to their families, and others have told family members they’re not receiving much food.
— With files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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