The DHS official said ICE detained Escalona in January 2025, after he was arrested by local Texas police for evading arrest in a vehicle. He arrived at Bluebonnet after he was returned from the U.S. migrant detention facility in Guantanamo Bay in February.

The Bluebonnet facility in Texas houses many Venezuelans. The US immigration officials have issued notices to them, accusing them of being members of the notorious transnational gang Tren de Aragua. The notice also states that all the accused will be deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798,

Thirty-one inmates at the Texas Bluebonnet Prison created an SOS sign when a Reuters agency drone flew over the yard. The prisoners, primarily Venezuelans, fear deportation and claim they are wrongly accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang.