Andry Hernández Romero, the gay man who was seeking asylum and protection in the USA before being swept up in President Trump’s mass deportations, has been released.
Hernández Romero has been released from the harsh prison he was sent to back in May. As part of a prisoner swap arrangement he has now been sent to Venezuela.
“We have confirmed that he is in Venezuela,” Immigrant Defenders Law Center President and CEO Lindsay Toczylowski told The Advocate. The organization is representing Hernández Romero in legal matters.
Under the prisoner swap arrangement 10 U.S citizens who were held in Venezuela have been released, in return the US arranged for more than 250 men held in El Salvador to be sent to Venezuela.
In 2025 the Trump Administration began detaining and deporting people undocumented immigrants who they believed to be association with criminal gangs. The administration deported 238 men to El Salvador. Swept up in the process was Hernandez Romero who had applied for asylum in the USA.
Hernandez Romero left Venezuela in May 2024 because he was targeted for being gay and for his political views. He made the long trek north through dense forest between Colombia and Panama, to Mexico, where he eventually got an appointment to seek asylum in the United States. At a legal border crossing near San Diego, he was taken into custody while his case was processed.
Despite a judge ordering his return to the USA, he remained in the El Salvador prison, and Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem refused to confirm if he was still alive.
It has been suggested that he was deported and imprisoned because he had tattoos on his wrists of crowns, which authorities wrongly identified as gang membership insignia. The tattoos are of crowns and make reference to his parents.
After fleeing Venezuela where he feared for his life, Hernandez Romero’s plea for asylum has taken back to where he began.
