While much of America’s news regarding wrongfully deported immigrants has held the focus on Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia, gay makeup artist Andry José Hernandez Romero is another case among many forcefully taken by Donald Trump and ICE without due process or oversight to the El Salvadoran super prison known as CECOT.
Much like the moves made by Senator Christ Van Hollen (D-MD) to put a spotlight on Garcia, openly gay Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA) is doing his best to keep Hernandez Romero in the headlines and check on his status in El Salvador.
Only in the United States since last year, Hernandez Romero had journeyed to the border, entering legally through San Diego. In his asylum request, he made claims of being targeted in Venezuela, his home country, due to his political beliefs and for being gay.
“The government had found that his threats against him were credible and that he had a real probability of winning an asylum claim,” his lawyer, Lindsay Toczylowski, said.
The deciding factor in which Hernandez Romero was taken by ICE comes from details taken from his screening at a CoreCivic detention center, where former police officer Charles Cross Jr. had noted the crown tattoos on his wrists. The tattoos themselves, coupled together with the words “Mom” and “Dad”, link the stylist to a festival in his hometown of Capacho, Venezuela, for Three Kings Day, a holiday that falls after the twelve days of Christmas.
Claiming within the following paperwork that the tattoos were gang-related, it was Cross’s ill-conceived determination that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used as evidence in taking Hernandez Romero to El Salvador.
In letters sent to CoreCivic and ICE, Rep. Garcia has demanded answers as to why Hernandez Romero is being held in the camp that has a reputation for torturing inmates.
“I write to express grave concerns regarding the deportation of Andry José Hernandez Romero, a 31-year-old gay Venezuelan asylum seeker, to El Salvador,”Garcia wrote, asking what role Cross, with his “documented history of misconduct,” played in getting Hernandez Romero sent there. Garcia included several questions about what safeguards were put into place before sending Hernandez Romero and gave a May 1 deadline for answers.
Rep. Garcia’s direct questions about Cross come from the former officer’s record, which specify he lost his job for DUI and crashing into a house; and allegedly committing fraud. The chain of issues placed Cross on the Brady List, which includes police officers who are considered non-credible for providing legal testimony in Milwaukee County.
Garcia, along with Representatives Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) and Maxine E. Dexter (D-OR), traveled El Salvado independently of Congress to demand evidence of Hernandez Romero’s status and to highlight his case in mid-April.
“We’re not going to be stopped from doing the right thing and standing up for due process and the Constitution,” Garcia told CBS News. “Democrats have to continue to show up and bring attention to this issue.”
According to a report from Fox News 11 in Los Angeles, there have been no details provided on Hernandez Romero’s condition and no communication from him at all. Said legal representatives at the social justice law firm Immigrant Defenders Law Center: “We were shocked by Andry’s disappearance from ICE custody. There has been zero communication [but] we are fighting to bring him home.”