Two longtime LGBTQ civil rights leaders are trying to draw the community’s attention to the case of a gay makeup artist from Venezuela who’d been seeking asylum in the United States but was whisked to an infamous Salvadorian prison by the Trump administration.
The story of Andry Jose Hernández Romero, 31, was featured on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on April 6. He was one of 238 Venezuelan migrants flown to the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in El Salvador three weeks ago after the Trump administration made an agreement with Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele to house them there. Human Rights Watch reports that the prison is the site of human rights abuses.
Hernández Romero had been detained in a San Diego immigration jail since last year, when he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to attend a pre-arranged asylum hearing in the Southern California city, the Daily Mail reported.
Bay Area resident Cleve Jones, the gay activist who co-founded the AIDS Memorial Quilt, is calling on Pride organizations nationwide to make Hernández Romero an honorary grand marshal for festivities this year.
“Something about this young man’s situation brings home to me something about the brutality and horror of what we are facing,” Jones said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter on April 9. “People should not dismiss this as a purely symbolic effort – I absolutely believe that this young man's life is in grave danger, and perhaps the only thing that can save him is public attention and outcry.”
Jones’ call is being joined by Nicole Murray Ramirez, a San Diego-based gay activist who, as the Queen Mother I of the Americas and Nicole the Great is the titular head of the Imperial Court system.
“It’s horrific,” Murray Ramirez, who is also a city commissioner, told the B.A.R. April 9. “We’ve got to do something.”
Murray Ramirez’s International Imperial Court Council became the first organization to sign on to Jones’ request after the two had a phone conversation April 7.
The B.A.R. reached out April 9 to organizations that are producing upcoming Pride festivities in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, New York City, Chicago, and Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city. Only San Francisco Pride returned comment by press time.
Asked if naming Hernández Romero would be something the group would be open to, Executive Director Suzanne Ford issued a statement.
“He believed this country would protect him, as it has for so many,” stated Ford, a transgender woman. “Instead, he was torn from a system that promised him protection and deported into one of the most violent prisons in the world.”
Ford continued, “CECOT is a maximum-security facility known for human rights abuses. For LGBTQ+ people, conditions are far more dangerous. Every day Andry remains there, his life is at risk.
“This isn’t just a failure of policy. It’s a failure of humanity,” she concluded. “San Francisco Pride stands with Andry, and with every human being whose life is endangered by cruelty masquerading as law. We demand compassion, justice, and an end to policies that punish people for seeking the right to exist in peace.”
While they haven’t gotten any commitments yet from Pride organizations, Murray Ramirez said, “Any of our court people who called [Pride] executive directors have been warmly and enthusiastically met.”
It may take time but he’s optimistic about seeing Pride recognition for Hernández Romero.
“There are procedures for this,” Murray Ramirez said. “Hopefully, this will catch on.”
Due process concerns
Jones expressed outrage about what the deportations mean for the rule of law and due process in the U.S.
“We in the LGBTQ+ community have a special responsibility to fight for this young man who is part of our family,” Jones said. “Let’s be clear – everyone is in danger now.”
This week, the national Human Rights Campaign asked people to sign a petition to return Hernández Romero in a fundraising email.
“Hernández Romero has no criminal record and is legally seeking asylum in the United States due to credible threats of violence against him in Venezuela because of his sexual orientation and political beliefs. His kidnapping, deportation, and imprisonment is a wound against the entire community,” the email states. “And let us be clear, no human being deserves to be stolen from their home, cut off from their family and legal counsel, and forced into indefinite imprisonment in another country. If the government can abduct and silence Hernández Romero and other people legally seeking asylum, all of us are at risk.”
The Trump administration alleged that the migrants are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. (CBS News could not find U.S. criminal records in 75% of the cases.)
In Hernández Romero’s case, the government argued in court that crown tattoos he had were evidence of gang affiliation. Hernández Romero has a crown tattoo on each wrist, with the words “Mom” and “Dad.” His hometown of Capacho in Venezuela is known for its celebration of Epiphany, the Christian holy day when three wise men visited Jesus Christ.
“Being Latino, I get it when we talk about our parents,” Murray Ramirez said. “The crowns had to do with his father and mother. … That was exalting them religiously.”
Time magazine photographer Philip Holsinger told CBS News that he was at the prison site when the migrants arrived, and that he heard a young man say, "I'm not a gang member. I'm gay. I'm a stylist." He was crying for his mother while he was slapped and had his head shaved, Holsinger continued.
Hernández Romero left Venezuela in May 2024, citing his political views and homosexuality as reasons to seek asylum. Venezuela is run by a dictator, Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. contends illegally claimed the presidency of the country after losing an election.
The B.A.R. reached out to Hernández Romero’s attorneys but has not heard back. They contend their client is innocent and that it’s illegal for the U.S. government to deport anyone to a foreign prison. The Trump administration is using a novel interpretation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as its legal basis, as its presidential powers had in the past only been thought to apply in wartime.
U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis (appointed by former President Barack Obama) ordered another person deported to El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, be returned to the U.S., but the administration argued in court that because he is no longer in U.S. custody there is no way to get him back, though it conceded he was deported mistakenly. He also had not been charged or convicted of a crime and is married to an American citizen. Abrego Garcia also had a permit from the Department of Homeland Security to legally work in the country.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily paused Xinis’ order that Abrego Garcia be returned by midnight Monday, April 7, to give the court more time to look into the matter. The pause will last “pending further order of the undersigned or of the court,” Roberts’ order states.
The Supreme Court separately ruled in a 5-4 decision on April 7 that the Alien Enemies Act can be used to deport Venezuelan migrants but that they must have “reasonable time” to get a court hearing beforehand. It did not rule on the flights that already transported the migrants to El Salvador.
LGBTQ Agenda is an online column that appears weekly. Got a tip on queer news? Contact John Ferrannini at [email protected]