A VENEZUELAN expat has found refuge in Spain after his American dream was stifled by the Trump administration who deported over 250 migrants to a terrorist prison in El Salvador.
Andry Jose Hernandez Romero attempted to flee the oppressive government of his homeland of Venezuela in 2024.
As an openly gay man, Andry sought out a new beginning in the alleged ‘land of the free.’
However, he sat detained in San Diego waiting for his asylum hearings before being secretly removed by the US government to a terrorist prison in El Salvador, where he remained imprisoned with brutal conditions for four months before being sent back to Venezuela.
Now Andry has emigrated again, this time choosing Spain for its ‘liberal approach to immigration.’
In an interview with The Guardian, Andry addressed he is still recovering from the traumatic experiences in both Venezuela and El Salvador, but things are looking up for him in Spain.
‘I can say I feel safe here, this is a place where I can be reborn, heal my mental health, let people know about my abilities as a makeup artist and find the happiness they took away from me more than a year ago,’ he told The Guardian in a video call.
Andry’s entry into the US was met with backlash on nearly every occasion, starting with getting arrested when passing through the Mexico border due to Biden’s CBP One system, which led to his stay in an immigration jail.
Several months later, Trump signed a proclamation to expand his power under the Alien Enemies Act to ‘deport immigrants living lawfully in the US.’
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The US President claimed that because Venezuela is considered an ‘enemy’ country of America, he could deport detainees believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Despite waiting over 24 hours to announce the proclamation, the government made hushed moves to put Venezuelan migrants who were already in federal custody onto planes.
The destination was El Salvador, specifically the Terrorism Confinement Centre (Cecot), otherwise referred to as the ‘largest prison in all of America.’
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said on X that the facility ‘will have space for 40,000 terrorists, who will be cut off from the outside world,’ which opened its doors in January 2023.
The prison consists of 256 cells, no windows, or fans.
Specifically regarding the Venezuelan migrants, El Salvador had come to an agreement with the US to receive $6 million to hold around 300 migrants for a year.
Yet the so-called terrorists moved from the US included Andry, who passed the preliminary asylum screening due to the ‘credible fear’ of persecution in Venezuela, but was kept in pretrial detention due to tattoos of crowns on his wrist, suspected to reference the Tren de Aragua gang.
The US judge of Andry’s asylum case questioned why he missed his second hearing, to which his ICE lawyer responded that he had been ‘removed to El Salvador.’
According to an article shared by US Congress, one high-ranking ICE officer acknowledged that ‘many of these men had no criminal records in the US but insisted that the absence of such a history actually highlights the risk they pose.’
After public outrage online and arguments in the court, federal judge Patricia Millett expressed that she believed Venezuelans had been sent to the El Salvador prison without notice or legal defense, even claiming that ‘Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act.’
A photojournalist managed to access the prison described seeing Andry there, who cried out for his mother and was both slapped and chained up.
Human rights organisations found the detainees faced a multitude of abuse, including physical, psychological and sexual violence.
After the surge of public outcry last summer calling for due process for these individuals, there was a sudden prisoner swap that resulted in Andry’s return to Venezuela.
Despite promising his family he wouldn’t try to leave his home country again, Andry told The Guardian he began to fear for his life again when Delcy Rodriguez was sworn into office as the new president of Venezuela.
‘That’s when I made the decision to come to Spain,’ he told the news outlet.
Spain allows for the right of asylum for people with the ‘well-founded fear’ of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, membership of a particular social group, gender, or sexual orientation.
The Spanish government has shared numbers that show Venezuelans make up the highest number of requests for asylum.
Andry is currently residing in southern Spain, awaiting his first asylum hearing scheduled for the end of May.
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I’m so glad he has found a place where he feels safe. I’m an American, and a majority of Americans were absolutely appalled when Trump made this horrible deal with Bukele to deport refugees with no due process to El Salvador’s infamous torture prison CECOT. The US govt is being run by absolute monsters and psychopaths. This man did nothing wrong. They were deporting immigrants based on their tattoos.
60 Minutes did a segment on the terrible torture these men suffered in CECOT. I’m so glad he was finally released, and I hope Spain gives him asylum!! Welcome to Spain, Andry!