SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A gay makeup artist who was deported to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador under a wartime law by the Trump administration has been reunited with his family in Venezuela.
Andry Jose Hernandez Romero had tears as he was reunited with his parents in Capacho Nuevo, Venezuela, Wednesday morning.
“His entire town was waiting for him, preparing a meal,” said Melissa Shepard, the director of legal services at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
Romero was detained under the Biden administration after he entered the San Diego border legally last summer to claim asylum using the CBP One app. He claimed he feared for his life due to his sexual orientation and opposition to the authoritarian Venezuelan government.
“This regime forces people to publicly speak in favor of them and when Andry refused to do so, he was persecuted,” Shepard said in an interview from Los Angeles.
In March, the Trump administration deported Romero and more than 200 other Venezuelan men to a notorious prison in El Salvador called the Terrorism Confinement Center by enacting the wartime Alien Enemies Act.
The government claimed the detainees were all members of the Tren de Aragua gang, but critics, including some lawmakers, said the administration failed to provide concrete evidence to substantiate that claim.
In Romero’s case, a CBP officer suspected the 31-year-old was a gang member after seeing tattoos on his body.
After he was deported, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said the government uses more than just tattoos to determine someone’s affiliation with a criminal network.
“This man’s own social media indicates he is a member of Tren de Aragua,” she said in a reply to a post about Romero.
Romero, who worked at a TV station as a makeup artist, denied he was a member of Tren de Aragua. Shepard said the tattoos are Three Kings paying homage to Jesus.
The Immigrant Defenders Law Center is representing eight men in total who were deported to the notorious prison in El Salvador, including two workers who were arrested in Imperial County.
“They were physically and verbally and psychologically tortured for 125 days,” Shepard said.
Romero still had a pending asylum case when he was taken from the Otay Mesa Detention Center and later deported to El Salvador.
“This is completely uncharted territory for everybody involved.”
Shepard said after Romero was sent to El Salvador, the government dismissed his asylum case, and an immigration judge sided with the Trump administration.
“This is completely uncharted territory for everybody involved,” Shepard said.
The Immigrant Defenders Law Center is appealing, arguing that Romero’s right to the asylum process is being denied.
Shepard said the non-profit law center is determined to hold the government accountable and alleged the Trump administration violated the Constitution and international asylum laws.
“These men survived 125 days in a torture prison, and we don't believe that anybody else should have to suffer the same fate.”
