In July 2024, then nineteen-year-old Nixon Azuaje-Pérez picked up spent bullet casings after a shooting outside his apartment in Aurora, Colorado. It was a decision that would thrust the Venezuelan migrant into the middle of Trump’s presidential campaign and eventually land him in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Local police suspected Nixon was part of a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua. But was he a member? And how would anybody know?

Host: Maria Hinojosa

Producer and reporter: Mateo Schimpf

Editor: Laura Pérez

Editorial support: Megan Verlee

Fact Checker: Roxana Aguirre

Social Media: Mary Juarez & Essam Aljahmi

Mixed by: Mateo Schimpf

Field Producer in Peru: Milagros Salazar, Convoca Perú

Managing Editor: Fernanda Echavarri

Executive Producers: Peniley Ramírez and Maria Hinojosa

Illustration by Mya Pagán

This story is a production of Futuro Investigates and Latino USA, in collaboration with Colorado Public Radio