A gay man who sought safety in the United States was instead disappeared into one of the most notorious prisons in the world—and on Wednesday, a sitting member of Congress demanded to know why.
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Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat and the first out gay immigrant elected to Congress, directly confronted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, accusing her of violating the Constitution and abandoning 31-year-old Andry José Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker who hasn’t been seen or heard from in more than a month.
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Hernández Romero had entered the U.S. legally using the CBP One app, passed a credible fear interview, and awaited a court hearing. Instead, ICE agents reportedly transferred him to El Salvador’s CECOT prison—a massive fortress of isolation and abuse described by critics as a concentration camp used by the Salvadoran regime to imprison alleged gang members, many without trial.
“You said that you’re committed to complying with the Constitution, which we, of course, all appreciate,” Garcia began. “Now we all know that the Fifth Amendment states … no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
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Garcia confirmed with Noem that “person” includes citizens and noncitizens and is committed to following the Fifth Amendment. When Noem said yes, he responded: “Now, Madam Secretary, you are violating that amendment as we speak and you’re breaking your oath. We cannot deport U.S. citizens without due process. There is nothing that could essentially stop Donald Trump from grabbing people off the street — that’s happening today.”
Garcia warned that the attack on due process has already resulted in irreversible harm. “This is Andry Romero,” he continued. “He had an appointment to come to this country to claim asylum. We gave him that appointment. The United States government gave him his asylum appointment. He comes for his appointment. He passes a credible fear interview. He’s a gentle person, as described by his family. He’s openly gay. He was [leaving his country due to] persecution for being gay.”
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Garcia described a system that lured asylum-seekers in under legal pretenses and then quietly disappeared them. “We are paying to lock this young gentleman up forever,” he said. “He has had no access to lawyers or family since he has been taken — over a month now. No one knows if he’s even alive. His mother just wants to know if he is alive.”
He asked Noem repeatedly to commit to a wellness check. “Would you commit to just letting his mother know, as a mother to mother, if Andry is alive?” he asked. “He was given an asylum appointment by the United States government. He was taken to a foreign prison in El Salvador.”
Related: Robert Garcia demands answers in case of gay Venezuelan migrant deported to El Salvador prison
Noem refused. “Our asylum applications are different than the granting of asylum, and I don’t know the specifics of this individual case,” she said. “This individual is in El Salvador, and the appeal would be best made to the president and to the government of El Salvador.”
Garcia wasn’t having it. “You have said that CECOT in El Salvador is one of the tools in the toolbox that you have. You’ve said that and have been saying that you and the president have the ability to check if Andry is alive and is not being harmed. Would you commit at least into looking and asking El Salvador if he is alive?”
Noem repeated, “This is a question that’s best asked to the president and the government of El Salvador.”
“I think you know very well that you could ask that question,” Garcia said. “What you are choosing to do, Madam Secretary, is disregard this young man’s life, this young man’s family, who was given an appointment by the United States. I think it is shameful that you won’t even request to see if this young man is alive. His family has no idea, has no access to lawyers. I would hope that we would have the humanity to just check if this young man is okay.”
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Later that night, Garcia joined MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes, where he reiterated that the U.S. government was responsible for Hernández Romero’s disappearance. “We kidnapped him — a young gay man who’s very gentle, according to his family — and sent him to a foreign prison in a country he’s never been to,” Garcia said. “And the secretary has the audacity to not even do a welfare check. His mother has no idea if he’s even alive.”
The deportation was reportedly based on a misidentification of two tattoos—crowns above Hernández Romero’s parents’ names—by a CoreCivic contractor who claimed they were gang symbols. “He never left ICE custody,” attorney Lindsay Toczylowski, who represents Hernández Romero, previously told The Advocate. “And yet they secretly shipped him off to a hellhole, like his life meant nothing.”
CoreCivic, the private contractor that operates the Otay Mesa Detention Center where Hernández Romero was held before his deportation, pushed back on the implication that its staff made a gang determination. “CoreCivic staff members did not make the determination that Andry José Hernández Romero was a gang member,” Brian Todd, the company’s public affairs manager, said in an email to The Advocate after this story was initially published. He emphasized that while Hernández Romero was flagged during routine intake screening for a tattoo that could be “potentially consistent with suspected STG [security threat group] affiliation,” he did not meet any of the other eight criteria on the standard screening form. “It is at ICE’s sole discretion how they use that information,” Todd said, adding that CoreCivic does not make deportation or gang classification decisions on behalf of the government.
In April, Garcia traveled to El Salvador with Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, and Maxine Dexter of Oregon. Though House Republicans denied their request for an official delegation, the lawmakers met with U.S. Embassy officials and delivered a letter demanding proof of life and access to Hernández Romero. The group also raised concerns about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who was, by the Trump administration’s admission, mistakenly deported under similar circumstances.
The U.S. Supreme Court has since ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return, but the administration appears to have taken no action to return him.
Garcia previously told The Advocate, “This is an emergency moment.”
Watch Robert Garcia take Kristi Noem to task in the clip below.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from CoreCivic.
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