Could you be labelled a “foreign terrorist” or an “illegal criminal alien” for sporting body art and be thrown into a high security prison meant for terrorists, in the 21st century?
Apparently, you could. In Trump’s ‘great’ America.
Andry Jose Hernandez Romero’s plight has unveiled deeper issues with President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign which was originally meant to free America of criminals and terrorists.
Romero, 31, a gay Venezuelan make-up artist found himself rounded up in a batch of 250 Venezuelan men and fated to months of ignominy and physical torture in El Salvador’s maximum-security prison, despite no known criminal history, because of tattoos on his body.
As he arrived at the dreaded Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, he was heard pleading, "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, according to a Time magazine photographer at the site then.
He was brought there for bearing a crown tattoo on each wrist, with the words “Mom” and “Dad.”
However, for the US immigration officials this was taken as ‘evidence’ of his affiliation with the Tren de Aragua (TDA).
“Detainee Hernandez ports [sic] tattoos ‘crowns’ that are consistent with those of a Tren de Aragua member,” an agent at California’s Otay Mesa detention centre claimed, reportedly according to court documents published in April.
That’s right.
Merely sporting tattoos – despite no known criminal records, had the Trump administration invoke the Alien Enemies Act against Romero.
Hernandez had crossed the southern border in August 2024 to attend a prearranged asylum appointment in San Diego, seeking to escape persecution for his sexual orientation and political views.
Speaking to The Guardian his mother explained, “He left because he wanted to help us…and to fulfil his dream,” Hernández said.
But he could never have imagined that he was about to face all that (and worse) than what he was trying to escape from.
Persecuted & Punished for Body Art
There were others too like Romero who faced similar persecution, Romero’s case was not isolated.
For instance, amongst those deported was a 26-year-old father of two, Franco José Caraballo Tiapa who sported tattoos of a rose, a lion, and a razor blade - representing his work as a barber.
He also wore the love of his children on his chest – with tattoos featuring the time of their birth and black lettering spelling their name.
And this was all that the US immigration officials who seized Caraballo, had against him!
Soon enough the Department of Homeland Security had termed him a “Deportable/Excludable Alien”, despite itself admitting that he had no known criminal history “at this time”.
Yet another example is Neri José Alvarado Borges, a 24-year-old former Psychology student who worked in a bakery in Dallas.
Alvarado had tattoos that said “Family”, “Brothers” and one which bore the name of his autistic younger brother, Neryelson with a rainbow-colored ribbon of the autism acceptance movement.
(Via Neri José Alvarado Borges)
His sister told The Guardian, “None of these tattoos has anything at all to do with the Tren de Aragua,” said his sister, Lisbengerth Montilla, 20.
Speaking to The Guardian, Martin Rosenow, a Florida-based attorney who represented Carabello pointed out that the criminal gang Tren de Aragua (TDA) that these Venezuelans are accused of being a part of, neither has any specific tattoo, nor do several actual members of the gang even sport any.
It is the greatest tragedy of our times that the United States of America which claims to espouse liberty and freedom, is today seeing times where foreigners with no criminal history are caught, accused, and punished – without as much as even a fair hearing.
Outrage paves the way for freedom
For all these abused victims of Trump’s immigration crackdown, Andry’s case paved the way to freedom.
Even as the government repeated the same lies over and over again, gaslighting anyone daring to ask questions about this barbarity, protests started all over, followed by a lawsuit – demanding the release of Andry Jose Hernandez Romero.
(Andry José Hernández Romero in Capacho’s Three Kings celebration via The Guardian)
What started as a local protest on a March evening, with Andry’s mother and hundreds of protesters at the San Pedro church in Capacho, quickly grew into a movement that demanded justice for Andry and other wrongly targeted Venezuelan men.
Andry’s story was soon covered by the international media, support poured for him from across the world and from within the US.
(Via Congressman Seth Magaziner’s official X handle)
Congressman Seth Magaziner wrote on his official X handle, “Andry Hernandez Romero presented himself legally at a port of entry with a credible asylum case and no criminal record. There is no justification for his detention in El Salvador.”
(Via Congressman Seth Magaziner’s official X handle)
His case became a common pain point for immigrants’ rights activists, human rights watchdogs, as well as the LGBTQIA+ community.
(Via Human Rights Campaign’s YouTube channel)
Cleve Jones, a longtime gay activist who co-founded the National AIDS Memorial Quilt told the Bay Area Reporter highlighted exactly this, saying, “To me, the important thing for people to understand is that the case of Andry Romero is right at the intersection of the struggle for immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, and the effort to preserve due process under law. That’s what this case is about, and we in the LGBTQ community have a special responsibility to step up and fight for his life”.
(A demonstration demanding the release of Venezuelan detainees deported and jailed in El Salvador via Jimin Kim/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/AP)
These efforts paid off, with Andry being released last month after 125 days in prison.
Yet, Andry’s case brought to light the glaring fault lines in President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown, and how the dangerous travesty of justice falling upon those who come to America seeking what they think America promises – a life of liberty and dignity.
Lindsay Toczylowski, President and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center (which fought for Andry and others from the forefront) summed it up saying, “…while we are grateful they will not spend another night being tortured in El Salvador, we also grieve the ongoing and lasting damage being done to our democracy by an administration that is willing to violate our Constitution, U.S. asylum laws, and international law.”
Just like the Andry Hernandez Romero movement, our personally designed and well-thought-over t-shirts showcase - in the truest American spirit - our resolve to push back against the atrocities of the administration.
We stand behind every Andry who was thrown out of the country for daring to be himself, and every migrant