Andry Hernández Romero, a gay asylum seeker who was sent by the US government to a notorious prison in El Salvador in March, was released and transported to his native country of Venezuela, according to his attorneys.
Hernández Romero’s whereabouts were initially unclear after he was sent to El Salvador, where he and others were denied access to legal representation or family for more than four months. Hernández Romero previously arrived in the United States to seek asylum due to anti-LGBTQ and political persecution in his home country. However, US immigration officials falsely accused him of having gang-related tattoos — even though the tattoos actually pay tribute to his parents and refer to the “Three Kings” festival from his hometown.
Hernández Romero was transferred back to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap involving 10 US citizens who were being held in Venezuela as well as 250 Venezuelan men who were in the El Salvador prison known as CECOT. Hernández Romero, who has since been reunited with his family, said in an interview with Reuters that many of the detainees in the prison suffered physical abuse.
“Many of our fellows have wounds from the nightsticks; they have fractured ribs, fractured fingers and toes, marks from the handcuffs, others have marks on their chests, on their face … from the projectiles,” Hernández Romero said, speaking from his home in Capacho.
Hernández Romero described the months-long ordeal as “an encounter with torture and death,” according to Reuters, and in a TV interview he said he suffered sexual abuse by guards at the prison.
Hernández Romero is represented by attorneys from Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which vociferously sought his release while he was in custody. Hernández Romero’s attorneys learned about Romero’s release by identifying him in a video clip of detainees exiting an airplane.
“We have been fighting to free Andry, our other clients, and all the men from CECOT for more than four months,” Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said in a written statement on July 18. “We are incredibly relieved that it appears most of them have been freed from the torture prison the US government sent them to… But as an American, and as a lawyer who believes deeply in the rule of law and due process, my heart remains heavy. What happened here is a dangerous travesty of justice.”
Hernández Romero’s case — and his months-long disappearance — grabbed the attention of LGBTQ community members across the United States, many of whom paid tribute to him during Pride Month festivities. He was named an honorary grand marshal at Queens Pride, where advocates called for his release and held signs with the words “FREE ANDRY” in capital letters.
Representatives of Immigrant Defenders Law Center gathered with elected officials, including out State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal of Manhattan, outside of the Stonewall Inn in May to bring attention to Hernández Romero’s case.
While they are relieved to know his whereabouts, the attorneys maintain that Hernández Romero never had a fair chance to make his case in the United States.
“We know the Trump administration denied them due process and sent them to a prison notorious for abuse and torture,” Toczylowski said. “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.”
