With no word on the return of Andry José Hernández Romero, the 32-year-old Venezuelan man forcibly detained and moved with 250 others to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison, Immigration Judge Paula Dixon granted the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) motion to dismiss asylum proceedings.
Hernandez, a gay man who worked as a makeup artist for a state TV station in Venezuela as well as an actor, came to the United States in 2024 seeking asylum from persecution relating to his sexual orientation and political beliefs. DHS pointed to Romero’s tattoos as evidence that he was part of the Tren de Aragua gang, using that as the reason for taking him into custody.
However, Romero’s legal team disputes that the tattoos, a crown on each wrist and a snake on his forearm, were anything like what would be identified matching with the Venezuelan gang’s iconography. Unfortunately, like with so many of the victims taken by the DHS under Donald Trump’s administration, neither Romero or his legal team had the opportunity to rebuke the allegations in court, with all due process being currently wrongfully dismissed by the administration.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) President and CEO, Lindsay Toczylowski, released a statement in response to the latest development in Andry’s immigration case. “It seems the government’s intention in dismissing these cases across the country is to complete the disappearance of people to El Salvador, to end their legal proceedings, and to act as though they weren’t here seeking asylum in the first place,” Toczylowski said.
“DHS is doing everything it can to erase the fact that Andry came to the United States seeking asylum and he was denied due process as required by our Constitution. We should all be incredibly alarmed at what has happened in Andry’s case. The idea that the government can disappear you because of your tattoos, and never even give you a day in court, should send a chill down the spine of every American. If this can happen to Andry, it can happen to any one of us.
Although there has been no communication from Romero since his deportation to El Salvador, he is the lead plaintiff in a high-profile lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the hundreds of other Venezuelans deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison under the Alien Enemies Act.
The immigration judge who dismissed Hernandez’s asylum claim is allowing for the possibility that the case be reopened if Hernandez returns to the U.S., according to a copy of the dismissal order reviewed by NBC News. While this gives Romero and victims like him the possibility of asylum should he be released, no details on Romero have been released from the Salvadoran government.