An immigration judge on Tuesday dismissed the asylum case of a gay makeup artist from Venezuela who the U.S. “forcibly removed” to El Salvador.
The Immigrant Defenders Law Center represents Andry Jose Hernández Romero.
The Los Angeles-based organization in a news release notes Immigration Judge Paula Dixon in San Diego granted the Department of Homeland Security’s motion to dismiss Hernández Romero’s case. A hearing had been scheduled to take place on May 28.
Hernández Romero asked for asylum because of persecution he said he suffered in Venezuela because of his sexual orientation and political beliefs. NBC News reported Hernández Romero pursued his case while at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
“DHS is doing everything it can to erase the fact that Andry came to the United States seeking asylum and he was denied due process as required by our Constitution,” Immigrant Defenders Law Center President Lindsay Toczylowski stated in the release. “We should all be incredibly alarmed at what has happened in Andry’s case. The idea that the government can disappear you because of your tattoos, and never even give you a day in court, should send a chill down the spine of every American. If this can happen to Andry, it can happen to any one of us.”
Toczylowski said the Immigrant Defenders Law Center will appeal Dixon’s decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which the Justice Department oversees.
Reached for comment May 29, Renne Garcia, a spokesperson for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, clarified what would happen at this point if Hernández Romero and the other plaintiffs win the D.C. District Court case challenging their removals from the U.S.
Garcia stated that if Hernández Romero wins that case at the U.S. Supreme Court, and his removal and detention was ruled unlawful, he would theoretically have the chance to motion to reopen his asylum case in the U.S.
But, she stated to the B.A.R., "Your question assumes [government] would follow [Supreme Court] order and based on recent events they haven't been doing this."
The court had ruled the Trump administration to facilitate the return of another immigrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, from El Salvador, but has not done so.
The Trump-Vance administration in March “forcibly removed” Hernández Romero and other Venezuelans from the U.S. and sent them to El Salvador.
The White House on February 20 designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.”
President Donald Trump on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.” Hernández Romero is one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit that seeks to force the U.S. to return those sent to El Salvador under the 18th century law.
The Immigrant Defenders Law Center says officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed Hernández Romero is a Tren de Aragua member because of his tattoos. Hernández Romero and hundreds of other Venezuelans who the Trump-Vance administration “forcibly removed” from the U.S. remain at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this month told gay U.S. Congressmember Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing that Hernández Romero "is in El Salvador" and questions about his well-being “would be best made to the president and to the government of El Salvador.” Garcia, along with Congressmembers Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Florida), Maxine Dexter (D-Oregon), and Yassamin Ansari (D-Arizona), were unable to meet with Hernández Romero last month when they traveled to the Central American country.
The Immigrant Defenders Law Center, the Human Rights Campaign, and other groups on June 6 plan to hold a rally for Hernández Romero outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Protesters in Venezuela have also called for his release.
Bay Area Reporter assistant editor John Ferrannini contributed reporting.
Updated, 5/30/25: This artcile has been updated with additional comments from Mr. Hernández Romero's legal team.
