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"Beyond comprehension in a free country": Legal asylum seeker sent to brutal Salvadoran jail [1]

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Date: 2025-04-07

In 2024, Andry José Hernández Romero arrived in the US from Venezuela seeking asylum because of sexual orientation and political views. He did everything the law required, including a pre-interview before he entered the country. He was 'legal' in every sense.

Once here, the authorities detained him in an immigration jail in San Diego over the winter. As bad as that might have been, it seemed a sanctuary to Andry. In a series of one-minute phone calls with his mother back in Capacho, Venezuela, he reassured her ,

"Mama, relax. I'm fine. They're treating us fine. What's bad is that we're stuck in here."

Sadly, he was not stuck in there for long. His American lawyer, Lindsay Toczylowski, explained to 60 Minutes on Sunday night :

"Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared. One day he was there, and the next day we're supposed to have court, and he wasn't brought to court."

It turned out that Hernandez had been one of 238 Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration back to Venezuela on March 15. Why was he deported without notice and little due process? Trump’s neo-brown shirts decided that his two crown tattoos over the names of his mother and father were ‘proof’ he was a Tren de Aragua gang member.

Their ‘proof’ was bullshit. As Andry's lawyer, Toczylowski, pointed out:

"These are tattoos that not only have a plausible explanation because he is someone who worked in the beauty pageant industry, but also the crowns themself were on top of the names of his parents. The most plausible explanation for that is that his mom and dad are his king and queen."

Hernández's mother, Alexis Dolores Romero de Hernández, was quoted by The Guardian as saying:

"Everyone has these crowns, many people. But that doesn't mean they're involved in the Tren de Aragua … He's never had problems with the law." She added: "Let my son go. Review his case file. He is not a gang member."

In addition, in Venezuela, it is common to get crown tattoos. The tradition stems from the country's Three Kings Epiphany commemorations. A fact that the authorities seem to have dismissed as an unnecessary distraction from their sadism.

The crown tattoo tradition stems from the Three Kings Epiphany commemorations. Photograph: US DoJ immigration court

Consequently, Hernandez was not given the benefit of a review of his case file. Instead, because of a deal brokered between President Trump and El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele allowing the US to send deportees to the Central American country, he was locked up in the maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador — a place legend for its dehumanizing brutality.

I do not know how many of the other 237 deportees were gang members — if any. Or what sketchy evidence the administration used to justify this extra-judicial cruelty. None of these "disappeared" have been in contact with their families or lawyers. And their fate would have remained a mystery except for Time photojournalist Philip Holsinger, who has been reporting from the ground at CECOT.

He took photographs of a man who told his prison guards — as he cried out for his mother and was slapped while having his head callously shaved:

"I'm not a gang member. I'm gay. I'm a stylist,"

The man was forced to strip. And in doing so revealed tattoos that identified him as Andry.

If they have not already, the reader should imagine the terror a man in this Kafkaesque nightmare feels.

The 60 Minutes report adds:

"A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said on social media that its intelligence assessments go well beyond just gang affiliated tattoos. She said Andre's own social media indicates he is a member of Tren de Aragua."

More total bullshit. This is what 60 Minutes found in searching through 10 years of Hernandez's social media.

I do not wish to stereotype, but if this man is a gang banger, so am I. (And I'm not.)

Tim Miller of The Bulwark describes the situation well. He points out (video below):

"I think about how desperate of a situation you have to be in to think that saying 'I'm gay' would help. And obviously you know that is just going to draw more attention to you. Get you targeted more. But he's just so desperate, he's trying anything. He's like, 'How could this be? This is such a mistake. How could this be me?'"

Miller added hard truths:

"But here's what I see. What I see is everyone involved in this from Kristi Noem to Tricia Mclaughlin to Steven Miller to Tom Homan, based on the evidence presented, they are the terrorists here. They are the kidnappers. They are the people that are going to be responsible for the surely physical and emotional trauma that will follow these men for life. At a fucking minimum, they are responsible for the most horrific trauma imaginable being inflicted on these people. They are responsible for disappearing them without the ability to call their mother, or father, or family. They're responsible for having men with hoods and masks shackling them to the ground and forcing them to submit. They're responsible for these men being terrorized."

He added a warning we must all heed

"We are no different from the jackals that we will just, on a whim, take someone and send him to a foreign dungeon to rot. That is not a free country. That is not the America that I grew up in. It's a very different place. And if we cannot rally to stop this right now with the Venezuelans, then things are going to get a lot uglier from here."

Let us all remember that everyone is secure in their own person — until they aren't. We live in a country where women are denied reproductive rights. What’s next?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/7/2315196/-Beyond-comprehension-in-a-free-country-Legal-asylum-seeker-sent-to-brutal-Salvadoran-jail?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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