Gay makeup artist deported
Andry Hernandez Romero: Same-sex attracted asylum seeker deported to prison built for gang members prompts outcry in WeHo
The deportation of Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay Venezuelan makeup artist, has ignited a ardent response from the LGBTQ+ community in West Hollywood, who are demanding justice and his guarded return to the United States.
Romero, who sought asylum in the U.S., is now detained in a supermax prison in El Salvador, known for its inhumane conditions and harsh treatment of inmates. His case has sparked outrage and condemnation from legal advocates, activists, and elected officials, who are calling for immediate intervention and systemic reform.
Deported to El Salvador despite seeking asylum
What we know:
Romero was deported to El Salvador despite inquiring asylum in the United States. He followed legal procedures to request refuge but was detained at the California border and later disappeared from an ICE detention center. He is now held in one of the world&#x;s most dangerous supermax prisons, a facility designed for gang members, and has been cut off from all contact wi
Andry Hernandez Romero, a lgbtq+ makeup artist who came to the United States last year in seek of asylum, is one of Venezuelan migrants who were flown from the U.S. to a maximum security prison in El Salvador three weeks ago.
President Trump, who campaigned on eradicating the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua, brokered a deal with El Salvador's president that allows the U.S. to send deportees to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
The Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Execute, a law not invoked since World War II, to send many of the Venezuelans there, claiming they were all terrorists and violent gang members.
Lawyers and family members of the Venezuelan migrants told 60 Minutes they've had no contact with the men since they arrived in El Salvador.
"Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared. One evening he was there, and the next day we're supposed to have court, and he wasn't brought to court," Lindsay Toczylowski, Hernandez Romero's lawyer, said.
What we know about Andry Hernandez Romero
Hernandez Romero le
Makeup artist is one of the US deportees sent from El Salvador to Venezuela, congressman says
WASHINGTON -- Andry Hernández Romero, a makeup artist from Venezuela who was deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration and held in a notorious mega-prison, was among the scores of migrants sent advocate to Venezuela in a three-nation exchange Friday, a California congressman said.
Rep. Robert Garcia posted on social media Friday night: “We have been in feel with Andry Hernández Romero’s legal team and they have confirmed he is out of CECOT and back in Venezuela. We are grateful he is alive and are engaged with both the Articulate Department and his team.”
Romero, a gay man, fled Venezuela last summer and sought asylum in the U.S. He used a U.S. Customs and Border Protection phone app to arrange an appointment at a U.S. border crossing in San Diego.
That’s where he was asked about his tattoos. U.S. immigration authorities use a series of “gang identifiers” to help them spot members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Romero, who is in his early 20s, has a crown tattooed on eac
‘He is not a gang member’: outrage as US deports makeup artist to El Salvador prison for crown tattoos
For as extended as anyone can remember Andry José Hernández Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited child Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh.
At age seven, Andry became a Mini King, as members of the town’s youth drama group Los Mini Reyes were known. Later in life, he tattooed two crowns on his wrists to memorialise those carnival-like Epiphany commemorations and his Catholic roots.
“Most Capacheros get crown tattoos, often adding the name of their father or mother. We’ve lots of people with these tattoos – it’s a tradition that began in ,” said Miguel Chacón, the president of Capacho’s Three Kings Day foundation.
The Latin American tradition appears to have been lost on the US immigration officers who detained Hernández, a year-old makeup designer, hairdresser and theatre lover, after he crosse