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After months in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, the gay makeup artist has been freed, but not returned to safety.
LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights advocates are expressing a mix of relief and fury after learning that Andry Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan asylum seeker who vanished into one of the world’s most notorious prisons under the Trump administration, has been released from El Salvador and returned to Venezuela following more than four months of silence, secrecy, and mounting outrage. But his supporters warn that because he initially left Venezuela to escape persecution for his sexual orientation, he remains unsafe.
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“We have confirmed that he is in Venezuela,” Lindsay Toczylowski, cofounder and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told The Advocate Friday evening. ImmDef has provided legal representation to Hernández Romero since his deportation in March.
Related: Andry Hernández Romero, gay asylum seeker disappeared by Trump, part of prisoner swap
Hernández Romero, 31, was among more than 250 Venezuelan men who were sent to CECOT, El Salvador’s maximum-security prison, compared to a modern concentration camp, under the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, a centuries-old wartime law historically weaponized to detain immigrants en masse. Despite seeking protection from anti-LGBTQ+ violence in Venezuela, Hernández Romero was deported to El Salvador, where he had no ties, without a hearing. There he was held without contact for 125 days.
“We have been fighting to free Andry, our other clients, and all the men from CECOT for more than four months,” Toczylowski said in a statement Friday. “We are incredibly relieved that it appears most of them have been freed from the torture prison the U.S. government sent them to, and potentially may be reunited with family soon. But as an American, and as a lawyer who believes deeply in the rule of law and due process, my heart remains heavy.”
Related: Jon Lovett and Tim Miller team up to ‘raise hell’ over gay asylum-seeker vanished to El Salvador by Trump
“So, while we are grateful they will not spend another night being tortured in El Salvador,” she continued, “we also grieve the ongoing and lasting damage being done to our democracy by an administration that is willing to violate our Constitution, U.S. asylum laws, and international law. While the Trump administration escalates their use of authoritarian practices meant to intimidate people into submission, we will keep fighting for justice for immigrants and for the future of our country.”
Gay California U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, Democratic ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said Friday on social media that his team is continuing to work on Hernández Romero’s case. “We have been in touch with Andry Hernández Romero’s legal team, and they have confirmed he is out of CECOT and back in Venezuela. We are grateful he is alive and are engaged with both the State Department and his team,” said Garcia, who had been vigorously demanding answers on the Venezuelan asylum seeker’s whereabouts and well-being.
In a follow-up video recorded from an airport on Saturday afternoon, Garcia said he was in active contact with both the legal team and U.S. officials to ensure Hernández Romero’s safety inside Venezuela, where he had initially fled persecution.“This is great news, as we know now he’s alive,” Garcia said. “We’ve confirmed that. We’ve seen pictures. I’ve been talking to his lawyers.”
He reiterated that the U.S. government was responsible for Hernández Romero’s detention and transfer to El Salvador, noting that he had been deported following an asylum interview initiated through a government appointment. “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,” he said. “It’s really sad what’s happening. It’s not just him, but others.” He pledged continued action to protect Hernández Romero and others impacted by the policy.
“We’re on this case,” Garcia said. “We’ll do everything we can to protect him, make sure he has his due process rights, but most importantly right now, that he’s actually safe.”
Gay Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who had donated to a fundraiser to benefit the gay detainee, called out the cruelty with which the Trump administration treated the asylum seeker. “I’m deeply relieved that Andry has been released from CECOT, but he never should’ve been deported in the first place. He fled Venezuela fearing persecution as a gay man, and sending him to one of the world’s most notorious prisons for no reason beyond profiling was a deeply cruel and dangerous decision by the Trump administration," Torres told The Advocate in a statement. "He has every right to return to the United States and is owed an apology from the White House.”
The Human Rights Campaign, which had joined legal advocates and organizers in demanding Hernández Romero’s return, said his release offered “both relief and anger.”
“This country has long been a beacon of hope and a safe harbor for those yearning for freedom. But the Trump administration is torching our values, using people like Andry as pawns in their quest for power,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement Saturday. “Andry will not have to lay his head down in a Salvadoran gulag tonight, and that is welcome news. But he should have never been subjected to unknown terrors in that prison, his due process rights continue to be denied, and we do not know what awaits him in the country he fled due to persecution for his sexual orientation.”
Related: Hundreds rallying at Supreme Court demand Trump return disappeared gay asylum-seeker Andry Hernández Romero
Robinson added, “We are in a constitutional crisis — grappling with a reckless administration upending the rule of law and terrorizing the vulnerable to consolidate power. The targeting of immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and basic civil liberties are not unrelated; they are a coordinated assault on liberty and justice.”
Hernández Romero became the face of a growing resistance movement after his disappearance into CECOT. During WorldPride in Washington, D.C., in June, HRC joined Immigrant Defenders, Vote Save America, and a coalition of allies for a protest on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.
One of the protest speakers that day, Bulwark columnist and podcast host Tim Miller, a gay former Republican strategist, also co-hosted a joint Pod Save America–Bulwark fundraising show for Immigrant Defenders. On Friday night, during a livestreamed podcast, Miller reacted to Hernández Romero’s release, which he called a “hostage swap,” with emotion and fury.
“It’s sick what we did,” Miller said. “It’s sick what we did to these men. 125 days. You just can’t imagine the trauma that they went through.” He added that the Trump administration had effectively engaged in “a hostage swap,” likening it to “what Russia did to Brittney Griner — kidnap random civilians, wrongfully detain them and then use them for a prisoner exchange.”
He warned that the U.S. government’s denials of involvement rang hollow. “They have been lying this whole time. The United States is and has been in control here,” he said.
Related: Ric Grenell’s rogue diplomacy stalls Marco Rubio’s Venezuela prisoner deal
Hernández Romero’s release on Friday was not the result of a legal victory, but of a prisoner swap that had been delayed for weeks by chaos within the Trump administration. As The Advocate previously reported, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been negotiating a structured exchange with the Venezuelan government that would have returned American hostages and political prisoners. But gay Trump envoy Ric Grenell, acting outside official channels, offered Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a side deal involving Chevron oil rights, undercutting Rubio’s talks and stalling the swap.
Ultimately, the detainees were released from CECOT, but not allowed to return to the United States. They were instead deported back to Venezuela.
Related: Kristi Noem won’t say if gay asylum-seeker deported to El Salvador’s ‘hellhole’ prison is still alive
Robinson pledged continued action. “As LGBTQ+ Americans, many of whom identify as immigrants, we recognize this pattern and stand unwaveringly with Andry, immigrant communities, and all whose freedoms are under attack,” she said. “And we thank the team at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, who continue to work tirelessly to bring justice for Andry and countless other immigrants like him.”
Editor's note: This article has been updated to include a statement from Rep. Ritchie Torres and to correct Lindsay Toczlolowski’s title. She is the cofounder and CEO of ImmDef.
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