Deported gay makeup artist cried for mother in prison, photojournalist says

A photojournalist has documented the abuse of Venezuelan immigrants deported by the Trump administration to a brutal prison in El Salvador, including gay makeup artist Andry Hernandez Romero.

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Romero, 31, was deported three weeks ago along with more than 200 others because of alleged ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. They were not given a hearing to contest the allegations. Romero was included because his tattoos were supposedly gang-related, but his lawyers have said they are not. Like a majority of those deported, he has no criminal record in the United States, and he has no criminal record in Venezuela either. He was seeking asylum in the U.S. from persecution in his home country. He has not been allowed to attend his scheduled asylum hearing, even remotely.

Photojournalist Philip Holsinger, who has been reporting on El Salvador’s crackdown on supposed gang members for over a year, recently spoke to 60 Minutes Overtime about what he witnessed when the deportees arrived.

The guards at the Terrorism Confinement Center, a.k.a. Center for the Compulsory Housing of Terrorism, CECOT, “move them fast and hard,” he said. “And they intentionally want them to feel that they’re powerless.”

“I’ve looked through my lens at many types of faces, laughing, crying, terrified, angry … they had no idea what was coming,” he continued.

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He witnessed Romero saying, “I’m innocent” and “I’m gay,” and crying while guards shaved his head.

“He was being slapped every time he would speak up … he started praying and calling out, literally crying for his mother,” Holsinger told Overtime. “His crying out for his mother really, really touched me.”

The Overtime story appears to be the first time Romero’s full name was released. His lawyers have previously identified him only as Andry or Andrys.

The prisoners at CECOT sleep on metal slabs, and they have no access to books or television. They are under 24-hour surveillance and have to stay silent.

“They’ve been stripped of their hair and their clothes. … It’s like your life just ceased to exist, Holsinger said. “You’re just a person in white clothes now.” As he observed the prisoners, he added, he had “a sense of watching people disappear.”