A rally was held in West Hollywood on Wednesday to show support for a gay Venezuelan asylum seeker who was deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Andry Hernandez Romero’s attorney, Lindsay Toczylowski, says the 31-year-old makeup artist was detained by immigration officers last August despite seeking asylum “in the way that the government was asking people to do.” Last month, he vanished without a trace.
“He disappeared while we were frantically calling from our offices in Los Angeles and San Diego trying to find him in an ICE prison in Texas,” Toczylowski said. “He disappeared without an opportunity to go to court and refute the baseless allegations that he was a member of Tren de Aragua.”
Toczylowski said no one has been able to get in touch with Hernandez Romero since his deportation to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. His condition is unknown.
Melissa Shepherd with Immigrant Defenders Law Center said that along with his passion for arts and beauty, Hernandez Romero was a humanitarian.
“He had aspirations and plans of starting his own nonprofit where he would help homeless youth in particular, and so, you know, hopefully one day he's able to see those dreams through,” she told KNX News’ Nataly Tavidian.
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Jorge Diaz, who helped organize the rally, expressed outrage at the violation of Hernandez Romero’s rights.
“As we stand here today, he sits in a prison – not an ICE detention center, not just any other prison,” he said. “He sits in one of the world's most dangerous prisons in a country that he doesn't even know.”
Hernandez Romero is among hundreds of Venezuelans who were deported by President Donald Trump’s administration under the Alien Enemies Act. Trump has claimed the deportees were all terrorists and gang members, but the overwhelming majority had no criminal records.
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