Bad Wisconsin cop’s tattoo claim helped deport gay asylum-seeker to Salvadoran prison hellscape: report

A former Wisconsin police sergeant fired for misconduct helped deport a gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker to one of the world’s harshest prisons, according to a new USA Todayinvestigation.

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Charles Cross Jr., who was fired from the Milwaukee Police Department after crashing his car into a home while intoxicated in 2012 and placed on a list of officers with credibility issues, now works for CoreCivic, a private prison contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Related: Gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker ‘disappeared’ to Salvadoran mega-prison under Trump order, Maddow reveals

Cross signed a report accusing 23-year-old Andry José Hernández Romero of being a Tren de Aragua gang member — based only on crown tattoos above the words “Mom” and “Dad,” the paper reports.

USA Today reports that Cross had no formal gang training but was tasked with identifying alleged gang members inside ICE detention centers. The report found that Cross had been under investigation for overtime fraud when he left the Milwaukee Police Department. Despite his record, he was hired by CoreCivic within months of his resignation and given the authority to label migrants as suspected gang affiliates — decisions that can lead directly to deportation and imprisonment.

Hernández Romero fled Venezuela last year after facing threats for being gay and politically outspoken. He passed his initial asylum screening, but before he could appear in court, ICE removed him and flew him — in shackles — to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a.k.a. CECOT, where LGBTQ+ detainees face grave risks, his attorney said.

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“These are tattoos that have a plausible explanation because he worked in the beauty pageant industry,” Lindsay Toczylowski told CBS News’ 60 Minutes. “The most plausible explanation is that his mom and dad are his king and queen.”

The case gained national attention after MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow spotlighted Hernández Romero’s disappearance on The Rachel Maddow Show in March, sharing photos of him as a makeup artist and reporting that he had vanished into the Salvadoran prison system without a deportation order or court hearing.

Federal officials have cautioned that the government looks at more than tattoos to identify Tren de Aragua members, USA Today reports. However, the government has provided no other evidence to back up its claims that the gay man is a gang member.

Photographs published by Time showed Hernández Romero crying inside CECOT, reportedly telling guards, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist.”

Toczylowski told 60 Minutes that her client “just disappeared” from ICE custody in the U.S.

“One day, he was there, and the next day, we’re supposed to have court, and he wasn’t brought to court,” she said. “It’s horrifying to see someone we know as a sweet, funny artist in the most horrible conditions I could imagine.”

Advocates condemned the use of private contractors like Cross to make life-altering decisions.

“That determination needs to be made by someone accountable within [the Department of Homeland Security],” Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association told USA Today.