Kidnapped to Salvadoran Mega-Prison: Andry Hernndez Romero's Family on 100+ Days of Disappearance

Over 100 days have passed since the Trump administration’s unprecedented removal of more than 230 immigrants to El Salvador's notorious mega-prison CECOT. They were removed without any due process in the United States. Democracy Now! spoke with the loved ones of Andry Hernández Romero, a 33-year-old gay makeup artist and asylum seeker who was told he would be sent home to Venezuela, according to his mother. But instead, he was sent to CECOT, where reports of torture and abuse are rampant. His mother Alexis Romero and his best friend Reina Cardenas have not seen or heard from him in three months. He has been identified in photos taken at CECOT by a photojournalist. Hernández Romero “was detained from the moment he showed up for his asylum appointment,” says Cardenas. “He never had due process.” Adds Margaret Cargioli, a lawyer for the family, “He sought asylum because he was persecuted due to his political opinion and because he's LGBTQ. … It is quite astonishing that in the United States, people are being disappeared in this manner.”

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