Andry Hernandez Romero, a makeup artist and gay asylum seeker from Venezuela, was recently released in a prisoner swap after four months in CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo), an El Salvadorian prison. However, activists warn that he is still in danger, as he left Venezuela originally to escape persecution over his sexuality. 

Hernandez Romero was originally detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after he made an appointment at a US border crossing in San Diego. According to ABC News, officers questioned him about his tattoos, a crown on each wrist with the writing ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’, under the assumption that the tattoos identified Hernandez Romero as a member of Tren de Aragua, a violent street gang. 

He denied being a member of Tren de Aragua, stating that the tattoos symbolised the ‘Three Kings’ festival in his hometown, where he worked in beauty pageants. Still, he was deported. 

He was one of more than 250 Venezuelan men who were sent to CECOT, a high-security prison in El Salvador known for its potential human rights violations. These men were deported after President Trump invoked the long-unused wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport men his administration accused of being part of the aforementioned street gang.

Many of these men were deported without evidence to back up the administration’s claims, and they have barely been heard from since being transported to prison. Lawyers, activists, and lawmakers working to get Hernandez Romero back were unable to reach him for 125 days, said the Advocate. 

In a recent prisoner swap, the gay makeup artist and other deportees were exchanged for 10 US citizens detained by the Venezuelan government, according to AP News. Following the announcement, Robert Garcia, a Democratic Representative from California, released a statement saying that his office was in contact with Hernandez Romero’s legal team and was pleased to report that he had been released from CECOT and returned to Venezuela. 

In a video statement the next day, Garcia reiterated the US’s responsibility for Hernandez Romero’s situation. 

“We were the ones, when we gave him that appointment, (who) detained him and sent him to that horrific prison with no proof of life until just yesterday,” Garcia said. 

Other US lawmakers were also involved with Hernandez Romero’s case, including a New York representative named Ritchie Torres. Torres said Hernandez Romero has “every right to return to the US and is owed an apology from the White House.”

Many other political figures and activists criticised the treatment of Hernandez Romero and other detainees, calling out the Trump administration’s actions. 

Despite Hernandez Romero’s release from CECOT, many have pointed out that this was not a legal victory against the Trump administration’s unfair deportations. Instead, this was a result of a prisoner swap that had been delayed for weeks. 

The prisoner swap was the latest in the Trump administration’s feud with the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro. The administration has shunned Maduro and claimed that he was not legitimately elected. In retaliation, Maduro had almost a dozen US citizens detained for allegedly trying to destabilise the country, a claim that the individuals and their families have rebuked.

Maduro, accused of human rights abuses, has been attempting to assert himself as the legitimate president by highlighting the Trump administration’s abuses of migrants. The Venezuelan president claimed that some of the men deported faced abuse inside the walls of the prison in El Salvador, including the loss of a kidney from beatings. 

Still, in a recent meeting with Maduro, Richard Grenell, an envoy for President Trump, urged Maduro to take back deported migrants from Venezuela.