After 125 days imprisoned in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, gay makeup artist and US asylum seeker Andry Hernández Romero has arrived in Venezuela.
The Immigrant Defenders Law Center representing him confirmed that he was released from CECOT on July 18 as part of a prisoner swap between the US and Venezuela. The release comes after months of campaigning on his behalf from the center and other human rights organisations. He was deported from the US and held at the prison known for human rights abuses.
On June 10, Immigrant Defenders Law Center president and co-founder Lindsay Toczylowski shared Hernández Romero’s story onstage in a talk at The Business of Beauty Global Forum, stating that he had been in the process of applying for asylum in the US after fleeing LGBTQ and political persecution in Venezuela. She argued that his March 15 deportation was based on faulty allegations of gang affiliation based on his tattoos and conducted without due process.
“We are incredibly relieved that it appears most of them have been freed from the torture prison the U.S. government sent them to, and potentially may be reunited with family soon,” said Toczylowski in a statement. Hernández Romero was among 252 men who had been deported from the US to CECOT, and were released in exchange for Venezuela’s release of 10 US nationals. According to a Reuters report, the Venezuelan government has stated they will be allowed to go home after a medical check.
“The Trump administration misled the public and our courts by claiming that the US government was not in control of what happened to the men at CECOT, only to eventually — after 125 days — orchestrate a prisoner swap using human beings as pawns,” said Toczylowski. “So, while we are grateful they will not spend another night being tortured in El Salvador, we also grieve the ongoing and lasting damage being done to our democracy by an administration that is willing to violate our Constitution, U.S. asylum laws, and international law.”
Learn more:
Attorney for Deported Makeup Artist: If ‘It Could Happen to Him … It Could Happen to You.’
Lindsay Toczylowski, whose client Andry José Hernández Romero has not been heard from since his deportation to El Salvador in March, forcefully defended the rule of law in a talk at The Business of Beauty Global Forum.