California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, calling for a Venezuelan makeup artist who was deported to El Salvador to be immediately returned to the U.S, and raising concerns over the right to due process amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
Andry Hernandez Romero came to the U.S. from Venezuela last summer, using the CBP One app to seek asylum as he feared persecution for his sexuality and political beliefs, according to Lindsay Toczylowski. Toczylowski is the president and CEO of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which is representing Hernandez Romero.
“He was doing everything that we asked asylum seekers to do,” Toczylowski said. “He followed the rules that existed at the time for him to seek asylum legally in the United States.”
Arriving at the border in San Diego in August, he was held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center for months as his asylum case wound its way through the system.
Toczylowski said at a hearing in that case on March 13, Hernandez Romero was not brought into the courtroom, with no explanation. The following week, she learned he was subsequently deported to a prison in El Salvador known as CECOT.
“We’re gravely concerned for his safety and well-being, because we know that the CECOT, this prison where no one has ever left, where people are held incommunicado, is a very dangerous place for someone like Andry,” Toczylowski said.
Toczylowski said Hernandez Romero is a makeup artist with a love of theater, who previously worked at a television station in Venezuela and has no criminal record. She said the U.S. government held him in detention and deported him because they alleged his tattoos – particularly crowns on his wrists – indicated he was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.
“They were in honor of his mom and dad, and they included crowns because every single year he appeared in a Three Kings play in his hometown of Capacho, Venezuela,” Toczylowski said.
Newsom’s letter notes Hernandez Romero “was denied the opportunity to defend himself against unsubstantiated allegations of gang involvement or to present his asylum claim,” pressing for his immediate return so an immigration judge can hear his case.
“We are not a nation that sends people to be tortured and victimized in a foreign prison for public relations victories,” Newsom’s letter reads.
When asked Tuesday about the deportations of Venezuelans without a record, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi pointed to those who have committed crimes.
“They’re not Venezuelan migrants. They’re illegal aliens from Venezuela who should not have been in our country, who are committing the most violent crimes,” Bondi said. “We can deport them and get them out of our country and save room in our prisons, because they should have never been in our country to begin with.”
Toczylowski said she’s had no contact with Hernandez Romero, noting that the more than 200 people deported to El Salvador alongside him are not able to communicate with family or attorneys. She said she also has not been shown his deportation order.
“Under the Constitution, every single person has a right to due process, and that means they have a right to notification of any allegations the government is making against them and a right to go into court and prove that those allegations are wrong if that’s the case,” she said. “In Andry’s case, the government never gave us that opportunity. In fact, they didn’t even bring him to court, and they have forcefully sent him to El Salvador without ever giving us any notice or without telling us the way that we could appeal their decision.”
She echoed Newsom’s concern over that right to due process.
“If this could happen to someone like Andry, who’s next?” Toczylowski asked. “If the government can make baseless allegations that someone’s a member of a gang and send them to a prison in El Salvador without even a hearing first, then who could be next? It could be green card holders. It could be U.S. citizens. So this sets a really dangerous precedent.”
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